Conor McGregor wants to fight this year. Desperately. So desperately, that he took to X to ask fans to pester the UFC CEO Dana White and convince him to let ‘Mac’ fight in December on UFC 310. The Irishman, of course, was responding to White’s recent comments at a press conference where he told reporters that McGregor would not fight this year. And Jake Paul, riding high off his recent win over Mike Perry, found all of this pitiable.

‘The Problem Child’ quote tweeted McGregor’s aforementioned post, and felt it was a shame that the biggest mixed martial artist in the history of the sport had to beg Dana White for a fight. “C**e head Conor is so down he’s asking fans to help him get his fight booked. Not sure what’s sadder, his downfall or that the biggest star in ufc history is controlled by Dana White like an employee & can’t fight when he wants,” Paul wrote.

Now, this might not be a case of White and McGregor being on separate pages due to a conflict. McGregor is simply too big a star for the UFC to put anywhere other than at the top of a PPV card. Many, like Chael Sonnen, have pointed out that a move like that could forever write him off as the cash cow of the UFC. While McGregor himself is willing to take non-PPV main event bouts, the UFC might not be willing to give it to him.

To make matters worse for the Irishman, there are stars like Alex Pereira and Belal Muhammad who could headline the December PPV. Once again, the UFC will not put a non-title bout over a title bout to headline a PPV. Doing so would place McGregor on a higher pedestal than a UFC title. So it seems like ‘The Notorious’ is caught between a rock and a hard place and will close out the rest of the year fighting nothing but frustration.

‘Mystic Mac,’ of course, was set to make his much-awaited comeback earlier this year. In fact, he was booked to fight Michael Chandler in a grudge match on the top of UFC 303 to cap off the UFC’s marquee International Fight Week in late July. However, the Irishman broke his pinky toe a few weeks from the bout, forcing him to pull out. Shortly after, the Dubliner made a full recovery and filled his social media with pictures and videos of him training hard for the bout, and asking Dana White for a 2024 booking. This has raised one question in many people’s minds.

Why does Conor McGregor desperately want to fight this year?

McGregor last fought in the main event of UFC 264 in 2021. And now it seems his return will be delayed by at least another year. Dana White, after all, was clear and told reporters straight that “Yeah, (McGregor) wants to fight. So we’ll figure it out. Not this year, he won’t fight this year.”

This delay, of course, is terrible news for ‘Mac’, the clock on whose career is ticking rapidly as his career seems to be on a steep decline. The former two-division champion is 36, has fought just four times in the past six years, losing all but one of those fights.

Responding to the news, Michael Chandler wrote, “Ah conor, the sport will move on and thrive without you. Put to bed. Laid to rest. Soon a distant memory. You’ve vastly overestimated your importance inside of this game for almost a decade. Godspeed.”

Is Michael Chandler right? Did McGregor overestimate his importance? If you think about it, his return did not happen in 2023 over a tussle with USADA. Had McGregor entered the USADA pool early enough, he could have competed in 2023. But he did not and had to serve the mandatory six-month testing period after the late entry anyway. His misfortune continued with the toe injury that forced him to withdraw from the UFC 303 bout.

The Dubliner undoubtedly remains the biggest name in the UFC by far, but he, like every other fighter only has so many years before he retires. Having already sat out three years of career so far due to a horrifically snapped leg, the Irishman is rapidly approaching 40, and the time by which most fighters retire. This is why sitting out another year is so upsetting for him and made him desperate to fight this year. Alas, that is not in the cards as Dana White has confirmed, and does cut a sorry figure of ‘Mac’ as Jake Paul pointed out.