Conor McGregor is going to have some options when he’s ready to return to action.
During his time healing from a broken leg sustained in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier last year, McGregor has continued to interject himself into several conversations regarding future matchups. Whether it be with titleholders at lightweight or welterweight, or top contenders like Michael Chandler, anything is always possible for MMA’s all-time biggest star.
Most recently, “The Notorious” has gotten into back-and-forths with a fellow former two-division champion, Henry Cejudo, after having his techniques criticized when sharing some training footage on social media.
Spending some time away himself, Cejudo is likely to return to action this year as he’s re-entered the USADA testing pool. With his sights set on an eventual challenge of Alexander Volkanovski’s featherweight crown, “Triple C” has also said he’ll fight McGregor, too. That would be quite a shock to see happen next — or ever — for each, however, and Cejudo notes that he’d like to see McGregor get a win against someone more on his level at this stage.
“I like the Tony Ferguson fight for him. I think that fight is winnable for Conor,” Cejudo said on The Triple C & Schmo Show. “He cannot be taking these high-level competitions. He’s gonna get hurt. He’s gonna continue to keep getting hurt. I think, he goes up with Tony, and then maybe — of course, he’s a cash cow — give him whoever he wants at ‘55 or ‘70, but I think he needs to get his feet wet. At least f****** win, man. Win a damn fight.”
Both McGregor and Cejudo’s last victories inside the octagon came in 2020. For the Irishman, he quickly dispatched of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in a welterweight contest while a few months later Cejudo retired off the heels of a second-round TKO of Dominick Cruz. McGregor has since lost twice in a row against the aforementioned Poirier. His last lightweight win came in Nov. 2016 when he defeated Eddie Alvarez to claim the title.
“It’s crazy because there’s a lot of flaws that he has,” Cejudo said. “As good as he was in the past, there’s still a lot of flaws that he has that he’s still not fixing. So I’m still not sold on that chump.
“Show some damn wrestling, show takedown defense. If I was Conor McGregor with all that money that you have, have somebody to live with you full time where they’re with you, they’re dissecting you, and they’re making wrestling fun. He needs to find a teacher that could really teach him. Not a coach, a teacher. And then once you find that teacher that can really teach him, and then you put it into practice where you’re actually going live and things of that nature. But what happens with a lot of these guys is they go too hard too early and yeah, wrestling is the toughest sport. It will break you, man.”
