At first glance, Conor McGregor would seem to have it all. He carved out a brilliant career for himself as an MMA champion, and he now has two sons and a daughter, and a loving fiancé.
He’s engaged to marry Dee Devlin, his long-time girlfriend, and he’s had a number of successful business ventures that include owning the Black Forge Inn in Dublin and running a recovery brand called TIDL Sport.
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But his post-MMA life has been anything but sunshine and roses. Like many champion athletes, McGregor seems to be struggling to give up the notoriety that comes with that kind of life, not to mention recovering the discipline it takes to maintain it.
So let’s take a closer look at how all of that has played out for him and answer the multimillion-dollar question-what is Conor McGregor doing now?
We’ll start with a quick summary of McGregor’s MMA career, then pick up on what’s happened to him since he supposedly retired in 2016.
The Championship Years
It would take a book to cover Conor McGregor’s achievements in MMA, but they can be summarized as a series of championships. He was a UFC champion in two divisions, featherweight, and light-double, and he was also a Cage Warrior featherweight and lightweight champ.
He maintains a ranking of #8 in the UFC standings, but much of that seems to be based on a series of fits and starts in his efforts to mount a successful comeback
Life After Retirement
McGregor hung up his belts in 2016, and for a while, his claim that he was retiring seemed legitimate. He landed a big payday when he fought boxer Floyd Mayweather in a landmark crossover bout, and the combination of that and his many successful business ventures led Forbes to put him at the top of their list of the world’s highest-paid athletes, especially when the ex-champ sold his majority stake in his whiskey company last year.
McGregor’s inability to stay out of the octagon has been costly, however. He’s fought just four times since he supposedly retired, and his most recent loss to Dustin Poirier last summer included a broken leg.
Any chance for a return fight this fall?
He’s been bulking up for an upcoming bout that will supposedly put him back on the UFC map, but his tweets about his return and his future opponent have been cryptic at best.
Dana White has helped stoke the flames by talking about McGregor’s return this fall, but White’s use of the phrase “if everything goes right,” has also cast plenty of shade on that possibility.
In addition, McGregor has taken plenty of criticism for his “will he or won’t he?” approach to his next bout. During his recent episode of his “Weighing In” podcast, former fighter Josh Thompson declared that the notorious Irishman has lost his edge and that “he is not one hundred percent dedicated to fighting.”
Thompson also based this claim on the fact that McGregor is now 33, and he’s also discussed the many distractions the former champ now faces with his impending marriage, a growing family, and his remaining business ventures that require his ongoing attention.
Part of the problem is that despite his issues, McGregor remains the biggest draw in UFC history. His pugilistic tastes also spill out of the octagon on occasions, such as the brawl between McGregor’s entourage and Khabib Nurmagomedov’s posse after their last title fight.
McGregor’s Legal Matters
The former champ’s ongoing search for stability in his post-MMA life has also included several unfortunate encounters with the law.
The most noteworthy one was an assault charge after a man in a Dublin pub turned down his offer of a drink, and he was also charged with several assault counts and criminal mischief when police said he attacked a New York City charter bus full of UFC fighters.
McGregor’s confrontational style certainly does help generate headlines that keep him on the front page, but Thompson isn’t the only one in the MMA fight game who thinks that he should simply hang it up for good and be content to work as a commentator while running his businesses and focusing on family life.
The odds of doing that are basically slim and none at this point, though, so it will be interesting to see how McGregor fares if he does fight this fall. Given his track record since his first retirement back in 2016, it’s hard to believe that any of this will go well for him.