Conor McGregor is making news for all the wrong reasons lately. Despite that, the question of his comeback has not died down completely. Despite getting himself deep in legal troubles, ‘Mystic Mac’ indicated that he was still training. “Last camp.. Next camp” was what he claimed about a picture of his training. Even though McGregor wanted to come back early in 2025, Dana White said that he would return sometime in late 2025. Speaking on this, former UFC heavyweight contender and fight analyst, Brendan Schaub, has some advice for the UFC CEO. 

On his YouTube channel, Extra Thiccc, Schaub weighed in on McGregor’s return and brought in Netflix as a live-streaming partner for the event. Even though the $375.03 billion worth of OTT platform faced quite a bit of trouble with Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson, it garnered a shipload of money for MVP. With McGregor’s return against Michael Chandler, the numbers might go even higher. But there was a problem. The UFC head honcho needed to let the Irishman fight.

The host of the conversation put forward, “If he comes back right and then let’s say they land on Netflix that they can spin it as like he was never criminally charged you know or guilty.”

Schaub instantly said, “The UFC can paint it like as, you know, UFC’s bad boy.” He continued, “Let’s say 2025 December, live on Netflix – Conor vs. Chandler. Massive! And that’s the problem. That’s the f—ing problem! Netflix is like, ‘Yo, what can get us numbers.’ Oh, man, you might want to lay low on this one for a little bit. But again, if you’re the UFC, I don’t know what it’s like in their contracts. If Conor wants to fight, I think he has one or two fights off on his contract, they have to offer him a fight. They have to.”

Brendan Schaub thinks the UFC can make big bank from marketing Conor McGregor’s return using the might of Netflix. How likely is this to happen, given the UFC’s partnership with ESPN? The UFC has been with ESPN since 2019, but their deal is set to expire at the beginning of 2025. UFC and ESPN reached their first media-rights agreement five years ago to broadcast 15 Fight Night events per year. Speaking to the Sports Business Journal just days back, Dana White provided insight into the UFC’s ongoing negotiations with ESPN, while revealing other platforms who may be in with a chance of acquiring their rights.

Netflix got into one of its first ventures into live sports a “record-breaking night”, as more than 60 million households turned in to watch Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson in November. The stream wasn’t without issues, however, as several fans took to social media to complain about glitches and buffering throughout the event.

But, it did not affect White’s approach to potentially making a deal with the streaming giants in 2025. “No, I actually thought it was smart of them to do,” White said when questioned if the issues during Paul vs Tyson brought any pause to do business with Netflix. “I didn’t think the event was great, but they needed to do that. They knew Mike Tyson was gonna bring in big numbers. Mike Tyson was gonna pull a big number and this was a good test for them before they start airing the NFL.”

“I always believed in it. I always thought that Netflix was crazy not to get into live sports sooner than they did. Those guys truly have a global footprint. I think they’re late to the game, but it was a big success. As we go into our negotiations in 2025, this thing could play out in a lot of different ways. Obviously we could be with Disney and ESPN for however many years, or you could see all of our content get chopped up, and like WWE and NFL does, [with] different products going to different networks. So I don’t know how that’s gonna play out as we get closer to getting into these negotiations, but it is a possibility,” White further added.

In fact, TKO Group Chief Operating Officer Mark Shapiro also thinks that Netflix could be getting into the business. if Netflix strikes a deal for UFC, it will cement the world’s largest streamer’s status as a competitor for any live sports package moving forward.  Interestingly, Just two years back, in December 2022, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said, “We’ve not seen a profit path to renting big sports.” But Netflix seemed to shift its stance with a deal to be the exclusive home of WWE’s “Raw” in the US, UK, Canada, and Latin America beginning in January 2025.

But as Sarandos clarified, “WWE is sports entertainment” and despite being broadcast live, WWE is also scripted and episodic. Bidding for a full package of UFC events would be different. It’s not scripted like WWE, but it’s just a series of live events. That’s truly a live sport. And if everything goes right and they truly end up streaming the Conor fight that can indeed bring the numbers they look for. While this is up in the air, some believe that the former UFC double champion won’t ever really return.

Matt Brown’s take on Conor McGregor’s return

While talking to EssentiallySports’ Andrew Whitelaw in an exclusive interview, former UFC welterweight Brown revealed his thoughts about the Dubliner’s comeback. “I don’t think Conor’s gonna fight again, to be honest. Everybody forgets he told us he’s not gonna fight. He told us he was coming in, getting money, and getting out. That’s literally the words that he said. So I think he likes being in the news. I think he likes being relevant.”, said ‘The Immortal’ about the return of ‘The Notorious’.

Even Chael Sonnen has similar beliefs. The one fighter who has now associated his name with ‘The Notorious’ is Michael Chandler. If the Irish fighter returns, it would most probably be against ‘Iron’. However, ‘The American Gangster’ recently revealed that the UFC doesn’t really have a plan for the fight. 

“I was just with Michael Chandler one week ago in Florida. And in visiting with Michael Chandler, it did become very obvious like what Chandler and Conor had going and when that fight was going to happen, or if it’s going to happen, or if it’s still going to happen. One thing that was very obvious through my visits with Michael Chandler is there is not a plan that hasn’t been revealed to us, the audience.”, said Sonnen on his YouTube channel.

Nevertheless, McGregor has promised us fans that he’d be “100% ready” for his return, whenever and wherever that might be. All that the fighting community needs to do now, is to wait and watch.

Do you think McGregor’s recent legal troubles will hamper his return to the UFC? Will it be Michael  Chandler that the Irishman returns against? Will streaming McGregor’s fight on Netflix garner more money for the MMA promotion? Drop down to the comments below and keep the conversation flowing.