“He had a dream in his life to become something. He got to be the champion and then it came with all the other s***. That distraction, it pulls you, it pulls you, it pulls you away from what you wanted to be in the first place,” Conor McGregor’s trainer Colin Byrne said in the 2023 documentary ‘McGregor Forever’. That did no good to ‘The Notorious’, apart from earning him further notoriety. And it reached a tipping point with his massive loss of face in the Nikita Hand case last month.

Hand, the plaintiff, won the lawsuit, reportedly leading ‘The Notorious’ to shell out a hefty sum to cover the damages the victim had suffered in an alleged behavioral misconduct in 2018. As reported by BBC, McGregor has been ordered to pay the woman more than €248,000 (£206,000) in damages. That was just the beginning of the financial loss.

Within days, Brands that used to swear by his name started to distance themselves from McGregor. major retailers all across the United Kingdom and Ireland, including Tesco, Supervalu, SPAR, Centra, and Costcutter stopped selling any alcoholic drink associated with Conor McGregor. In fact, Proper Twelve, the crown jewel of McGregor’s business interests announced that they will no longer use McGegor’s “name and likeness” to market the drink. McGregor and some of his business partners sold a massive stake in the Proper 12 whiskey to alcohol giant Proximo Spirits in 2021 for around $600 million. If these were not enough, just a week back, there came a fresh blow.

Along with the previous damages, McGregor was ordered to pay the entire legal costs to Nikita Hand, estimated at €1.5m (£1.24m). On top of that McGregor’s outburst on social media describing the court as a “kangaroo court” brought him allegations of insulting the court. With problems raining from all directions, a former UFC fighter thinks there is only one thing that McGregor can do to build his reputation back.

Former UFC fighter Josh ‘The Punk’ Thomson and Big John McCarthy talked about McGregor’s situation on their ‘Weighing In’ podcast. According to Thomson, the best way to win back the fans is to get back to action as quickly as possible. But his partner, former UFC referee Big John McCarthy feels the former dual-champion has a lot going on his mind rather than fighting. But Thomson disagreed and added:

“This is the best way to get the spotlight off of that is to do what everyone loved you for to begin with, and I know it’s not easy to do but I’m simply saying history is shown in the past with sports you get into mixups with ladies and or whatever anything else real problems criminal problems, the best thing to do is to win a championship.”

“The best thing to do is to get active and make you know make people start talking about other things that you’ve done. Oh he shot he shot for 80 points in this game, oh he threw six touchdowns, he caught four touchdowns. Whatever is, gets people talking about something else and I think honestly the best thing for him is to get back in the cage as soon as possible,” Thomson added.

McCarthy then questioned, “Okay let me ask you this. When you take a look at what is occurring with a lot of his businesses based upon – the losing of that, you just let those slide? Because you can’t put your attention on everything. You can’t put your attention to training for a fight, and put your attention towards saving a business. It doesn’t work.” But Thomson believes even this problem has its solution in McGregor’s return to the cage.

He added, “He just lost $100 million, he’s gonna have to make that money up somehow. Fighting is another way to try to get back in the good graces of those companies. New companies will definitely take a chance.” And it seems that McGregor himself also looking for that. Just two days back, he engaged in a quickly deleted social media exchange with Michael Chandler teasing his potential return.

The former two-division UFC champion, who hasn’t fought since suffering a broken leg back in 2021, touted his 19 knockouts in MMA while adding “great chat Dana White, love your thinking!.” It didn’t take long for Michael Chandler to get into it to remind McGregor about a conversation they shared while coaching The Ultimate Fighter against each other back in 2023.

“Remember in the cold tub doing the TUF coaches’ challenge you said I’d be your 20th [knockout], Show up and try me,” Chandler wrote. McGregor replied with a mocking tweet of his own, adding: “It’s you! Rest up and I’ll see you at the top.” He also tagged Dana White and used the hashtag “Man of my word”.

Chandler was originally slated to face McGregor in June but the Irish superstar suffered a broken toe that prevented him from fighting. After that, the UFC didn’t rebook the fight with White later stating that he expected McGregor to instead return sometime in the latter part of 2025. After already sitting out for almost two years waiting for the McGregor fight, Chandler eventually booked a rematch against Charles Oliveira at UFC 309 in November. Unfortunately, things didn’t go his way with Chandler ultimately losing to Oliveira over five rounds.

While it seems like the Dubliner wants a comeback, the legal issue had a significant bearing on his acceptance in the UFC world. Once the most sought-after fighter with people wanting to fight him, things have taken a completely new turn altogether.

Ilia Topuria has no interest in fighting McGregor after his legal troubles

Conor McGregor’s legal issues are now interfering with his potential return to the Octagon. With the fighter once being a man that every contender wanted to face, McGregor’s situation has drastically shifted following his loss in the civil case filed by Nikita Hand.

Even Ilia Topuria, who had recently garnered attention for mimicking McGregor’s persona, has now backed away from the idea of facing him inside the Octagon. At the UFC 310 post-fight press conference, even Dana White declined to comment on Conor McGregor. When asked about his thoughts on McGregor’s ongoing legal issues, the UFC president simply responded, choosing not to engage in the matter.

On December 5, featherweight champion ‘El Matador’ had an hour-long discussion with Josep Pedrerol on ‘El Chiringuito TV’. During the interview, he shared his thoughts on potentially facing Conor McGregor upon his UFC return. However, his response was far from favorable concerning the Irishman.

He stated, “At one point, I was interested, but not anymore. He’s dealing with serious personal issues, and I have no desire to step into the Octagon with someone like that.” Conor McGregor still has two fights left in his UFC contract. However, the former dual champion might just find it tough to make a comeback anytime soon.

When will we see Conor McGregor return to action? If so, who do you think will be willing to face him? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.