Conor McGregor makes announcement on his next fight but it won’t be in the UFC
Conor McGregor has claimed he is in talks to face Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition in India in his next fight. The Dubliner has not fought in over three and a half years and is expected to return to the Octagon in 2025.
McGregor was due to face Michael Chandler in June of this year, but withdrew from the fight after suffering an injury in training. He now claims that his next fight will take place inside a boxing ring rather than a cage and will be against the older brother of Jake Paul.
McGregor wrote on X: “The rumors of a bout with (Ilia) Topurio are false. I am in preliminary agreements with the Ambani family to face Logan Paul in a boxing exhibition in India. I have agreed. I will then seek my return to the Octagon.”
McGregor famously switched over from MMA to boxing to face Floyd Mayweather in 2017, losing via TKO in the tenth round of the light middleweight contest in Las Vegas.
He has told of his keenness to box again since the Mayweather fight, which he reportedly made more than €100million from.
Meanwhile, Michael Chandler has not given up hope of fighting Conor McGregor – and has refused to kick the Crumlin man “while he’s down”.
Chandler, 38, had been scheduled to face McGregor in a welterweight bout at UFC 303 in June, but the fight was cancelled with McGregor citing an injury.
Claiming not wanting to wait for McGregor, Chandler fought for the first time in two years when losing by unanimous decision to Charles Oliveira last month.
But the American has reignited his desire to fight McGregor since the loss. He told Fightbook MMA: “I would put Conor McGregor coming back to the UFC at 50/50 right now. That is my expectation and you’re talking to a guy who had assurances behind the scenes to know that he was going to come back.
“Then he came back and signed a contract. I saw the contract, I signed the contract that had my name on it. June 29th T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.
“We got 13 days before the fight obviously and he had to pull out with an injury. With that being said obviously Chandler versus McGregor needs to happen at some point.
“We have to finish the Ultimate Fighter 31 and as Connor said on his tweet the other day, he’s a man of his word and wants to fight me. I think that’s a fight the fans want.
“If he does come back, who’s he gonna fight that there is already some history with? We’ve got the Ultimate Fighter.
“Obviously, I have now thrown my name into the upper threshold of the guys that people want to see fight. Fans know that on any given Saturday night, in any given arena, I will put butts in seats, I will blow the roof off of the arena, and I will get the fight of the night.
“So it’s a fun fight, it’s an exciting fight, but I’d still give it a 50-50 right now. But if he does come back, he’s going to be fighting me.”
Chandler says he still has plenty of respect for McGregor’s exploits in the octagon despite the controversies that surround the Dubliner.
“Tweeting and deleting has become his thing, he likes to keep people on the edge of their seats and keep people intrigued.
“He knows when he throws a tweet out there or he throws any kind of opinion out there or even just when he’s in public, he knows people are watching and taking notice.
“We don’t have much of a relationship. But when it comes to the respect that we have for each other, I’m never gonna be the guy who’s gonna kick him while he’s down.
“I’m never gonna be the guy who’s gonna be talking a bunch of trash and throwing a bunch of shade. But it’s not just exclusive to Connor either. You haven’t really seen me be that guy anyway for a lot of the guys that I fight.
“I’ve got a ton of respect for the guys that do what I do. Whether they leave their families or they go into a different place in their mind and heart for 12 weeks and train for a fight and go lay on the line and brave bodily harm.
“There’s a ton of respect that I have for everybody in this sport. But with Connor and I, if the fight happens, the fight happens. I hold no ill will toward him whatsoever. I think we wanna give the fans what they want and what they desire.
