Chael Sonnen feels bad for Conor McGregor. The Irishman, of course, is involved in a heated and public dispute with Dana White over wanting to fight in December. But the UFC has refused to book him on UFC 310, despite his three years and counting out of the octagon. Seemingly tired and frustrated at being slighted by the UFC, the biggest-ever MMA star posted a video of him training on Instagram yesterday and captioned the post ‘#FreeThe Mac’ seemingly calling on the UFC to release him if they can’t give him a December date.

And verbose UFC analyst and former superstar Chael Sonnen is enjoying every bit of it. The former title contender said on his YouTube channel that this ongoing date dispute between ‘Mac’ and the UFC has proven one thing- Conor McGregor has no power in the UFC despite his pretensions earlier that he did.

“Conor McGregor is being persecuted. You got to free the ‘Mac’… I love it. It’s very catchy… Conor has only ever feinted one thing. The only thing he claimed to have that he didn’t was power. And it was one of the most important ingredients in the McGregor character.” he said.

McGregor, of course, is the biggest needle-mover in the promotion, which was proven yet again earlier this year. Because of this status, the Irishman has always at least pretended that he can make decisions and even sometimes dictate terms to the UFC.

But, with him reduced to throwing temper tantrums to get a fight date, everyone has realized that the emperor, in fact, has no clothes. However, according to the UFC analyst, this hasn’t necessarily hurt McGregor as far as optics go. The West Lynn, Oregon native pointed out that the Irishman has gone from being the bad boy superstar to a more sympathetic character, who is a victim of Dana White‘s unfair treatment over the date issue.

“But I have enjoyed watching him reveal that he does not have power. It hasn’t weakened him. In some ways made it him appear vulnerable which there is nothing at least in America more powerful… than a victim,” he added. And it is precisely this vulnerability that has presented ‘Mac’ as something he never was before- a victim. This has, according to Sonnen, paradoxically given the Irishman some power in the form of sympathy from the fans.

In fact, even Michael Chandler, who had been bullied and insulted by ‘Mac’ over the past year, has started to trash ‘Mac’ publicly with an intensity and vitriol he hadn’t before. But that is still explainable since the duo are set to fight whenever the UFC decides, and projecting conflict is always a good idea to sell PPVs. As far as when they will fight, Sonnen had some revelations on that topic, too.

Chael Sonnen claims UFC mulling January ’25 date for Conor McGregor comeback

Chael Sonnen thinks that there is still a possibility, albeit a slim one that McGregor fights in this on the promotions’s last PPV card in December. The insider, however, did reveal that the UFC was looking to book ‘Mac’ against Chandler in January.

“I am not closing my ideas to the idea that McGregor will in fact be on the December
card so that’s still open. And I can tell you they would like him on the January card in California,” he said.

However, Sonnen is not the most reliable of sources and it is wise to take his predictions with a grain of salt. So far, the UFC has certainly not said anything about a January fight, but then again that card is too far ahead for them to have spoken about publicly.

But, there is also the fact that there have been no reports or even rumors about ‘Mac’ possibly fighting in January, as would be expected for possibly the biggest (commercially and in terms of fan interest at least) fight in the sport at the moment.

For all practical purposes, it seems like Conor McGregor will not fight this year with no further word on when he will make his much-awaited return. What are your thoughts on Chael Sonnen’s comments about Conor McGregor?