Donald Trump may have ended Conor McGregor‘s fighting career. A bold statement but stay with us on this! Not through anything the US President necessarily said or did, but because ‘Mystic Mac’ officially announced his desire to run for Ireland’s President this year, after meeting the POTUS at the White House last month. To be fair, the former double champ has been hinting at running for office since last year, but the final indication seems to have come after the meeting with the US President.

‘The Notorious’, of course, is a massive Trump supporter and has expressed his admiration for the 47th President publicly on many occasions. After the assassination attempt on then-candidate Trump’s life last year, for instance, the UFC superstar took to social media to sing paeans to the business mogul. Unsurprisingly, the Dubliner had even endorsed him in the 2024 US Presidential election.

And the feeling is mutual, with Trump calling ‘The Notorious’ his ‘favorite Irishman’. Just how much ‘Mystic Mac’ admires Trump became clear yet again, as the Irishman posted one of the pictures of his amicable meeting with President Trump on social media, done in the style of the recent Ghibli Studios animation trend.

“Me and the big bro Donald J Trump. #ovaloffice @realdonaldtrump @whitehouse #NOTORIOUSIRISH,” ‘Mystic Mac’ captioned the picture.

The Ghibli Studio style images, of course, are the biggest global trend in the world right now. Millions of people around the world have been posting their own pictures done in the incredibly beautiful, realistic, and full-of-life hand-drawn animation style used by the Japanese animation studio.

Of course, the images users (and indeed McGregor) have posted online are AI-generated and not hand-drawn like the original thing, which the studio’s founder, Hayao Miyazaki doesn’t really like. But despite the Japanese maestro’s reluctance, the trend has taken off in a big way, as McGregor’s aforementioned post reveals, which has been well received by fans. But what wasn’t as well-received by one notable UFC veteran was the Dubliner implying he may yet come back to fighting after giving politics a go.

Chael Sonnen excoriates Conor McGregor after the political run announcement

The bombastic Dubliner may claim that the reason he wants to run for politics and put fighting on the back burner may be because “my heart bleeds for my country right now.” In addition, ‘Mystic Mac’ hasn’t ruled out a return to the Octagon after he is done with politics. But verbose UFC analyst and perennial contrarian Chael Sonnen just isn’t buying it.

“What part of it would he come back for?” Sonnen asked on his YouTube channel. “He’s got a beating standing in front of him, we can go 155lbs, we can go 170lbs, we can make up a weight class, there’s not an athlete under contract with the UFC that he can beat,” ‘Uncle Chael’ said.

McGregor’s fighting career, of course, had been on a steep downward trend even when he was active. The once-nigh-unbeatable Irishman has lost three out of his last four fights. Moreover, ‘The Notorious’ hasn’t fought for four years and is living the high life. All of these factors, of course, have fans questioning whether the Irishman could even compete with any of the top guys in the UFC.

And ‘Uncle Chael’ is confident the answer to that question is a resounding no. In fact, the UFC analyst feels that the Irishman better not think about fighting again, lest he get a whooping of epic proportions.

“I don’t even mean that to be a j—, when they bring him back, they put him in a main event and all of a sudden you’re asking him to do five rounds. We’ve got a guy who can’t breathe for a full round. This is just a reality, there’s nothing to come back for… There’s no reason to come back, there’s an a– whipping waiting for you,” Sonnen declared. What do you think about Conor McGregor posting the Ghibli-style image of him and Donald Trump?