Conor McGregor is expected to make his return to competition later this year, but esteemed MMA head coach Rafael Cordeiro doesn't like his chances against any of the top 15 UFC lightweights.
While Cordeiro — who is preparing Beneil Dariush for a pivotal lightweight showdown with Charles Oliveira at UFC 288 — accepts the Irishman is still a major player in the division, he believes a combination of factors mean that McGregor is nothing more than a payday at this point.
Of course, McGregor was always a payday for anyone fighting him, but back in the day, he was also one of the best and most exciting fighters in the UFC.
With three defeats in his last four and not a single win at 155 pounds since Nov. 2016, Cordeiro feels things have changed dramatically — so much so that every ranked lightweight would swallow him.
“There’s Arman [Tsarukyan], a super tough kid. There’s [Mateusz] Gamrot, [Dustin] Poirier, [Justin] Gaethje. A lot of people. [Rafael] Fiziev, super tough guy,” Cordeiro told MMA Fighting. “Those are names that, f**k, I’d much rather watch them fight than Conor. And everybody fights [McGregor] now for what he represents. He’s lost that challenge thing, ‘I wanna fight Conor because he’s tough and knocks everybody out.’ No, it has gotten to a point where people couldn’t care less for that. ‘I wanna fight this guy because he generates good money.’ That’s what they worry about.
“People worry more about those top-15 guys than Conor now, to tell you the truth. These top-15 guys today, they’d all swallow Conor. Nothing against Conor, but, unfortunately, the time away, the leg surgery, the [lack of] motivation, the money, the drinking, looking swollen of booze — he’s living life like crazy, so you lose the interest a little bit. He’s doing The Ultimate Fighter now, the Conor show, but where’s the guy in the mountains, training quietly? That’s the champion. When you have media ahead of everything else you automatically lose a bit of the hunger, I think.”
While it's certainly true that a lot more lightweights trouble McGregor today than they did in 2016, it still is a bit of a stretch to say that every top-15 lightweight would make easy work of the former two-weight champion.
But like Cordeiro stated, Conor McGregor turns 35 this year, hasn't competed since July 2021 and is returning from a broken leg. His impending fight with Michael Chandler will certainly be a true litmus test of where he's at.
Follow Us
Subscribe