The year 2022 could see the return of Conor McGregor. However, it would be interesting to see what type of opponent he chooses for his return bout, as he would be coming from a gruesome injury. The broken leg at UFC 264 had the Irishman go through surgery and a long recovery period.
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Recently, UFC veteran commentator Joe Rogan suggested he would like the Irish superstar to level down on competition. Even Mike Tyson affirmed the thought and advised McGregor to make his comeback the right way.
The two legends of the combat sports presented McGregor to take the boxing approach and return with a tune bout. Subsequently, the news caught up with Chael Sonnen, and the former middleweight and light heavyweight title challenger offered his opinion on the matter.
‘The Bad Guy’ said, “I heard this whole tune-up fight; the level of silliness, but when heard this, it was juxtaposed against boxing, which for some reason we continue to do.”
Subsequently, Rogan talked about boxing having the ‘worst model’, ‘worst leadership’ and even the contracts differ from the UFC. Afterward, he said the idea of Conor McGregor in a tune-up fight was ‘weird’.
Thus, he pointed out, “Conor’s looking at very close to 20 million for his return fight. So, who the hell is going to want to pay Conor 20 million dollars for a return fight? That’s being advertised as a tune-up fight.”
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Thus, Sonnen doesn’t share the same sentiment as Joe Rogan and Mike Tyson and puts out how the audience would react to it; as opposed to the former, who recommended the idea for the benefit of ‘The Notorious’.
What is a tune-up fight that Joe Rogan and Mike Tyson mentioned for Conor McGregor?
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Unlike boxing, the UFC doesn’t have the precedence of having a fighter take on low-level opponents just to keep themselves active. It’s because MMA is relatively more uncertain than the sport of boxing. Since, in MMA, there are more tools available for a fighter to get the win, there’s more risk in taking a tune-up bout.
Also, as Chael Sonnen mentioned, the model for both sports is different. Consequently, MMA/UFC doesn’t follow boxing in this case and doesn’t have tune-up fights. Especially for someone of the stature of Conor McGregor.
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What do you think of Chael Sonnen’s opinion about Conor McGregor’s UFC return? Share your thoughts in the comments.