Conor McGregor is nowhere near ready to get back in the octagon – yet there are plenty of UFC athletes calling him out every day.
The latest in a long line of McGregor call outs is Jorge Masvidal. Unlike many others – Masvidal actually seems like a reasonable choice of opponent. Despite having a larger frame, Masvidal used to compete at 155lbs and reportedly doesn’t cut much weight to compete at welterweight.
Masvidal is also struggling to get a W in the column. The UFC ace has been somewhat coasting since that flying knee against Ben Askren catapulted him into stardom.
Masvidal is eager to get back in the octagon – perhaps due to his legal issues. He told ESPN Deportes :
“…This year, I’ll guarantee a return. I don’t know the date yet. I think that with two fights, I can be in contention or in a title contender fight.”
And as for McGregor, Masvidal hurled accusations of PED abuse at him.
“He is false. He knows that I am a man who hits hard and that I come to kill. I do not come to hug in the cage,” Masvidal said.
“I am going to give everything inside me to kill him. I have a little size, although now he’s shooting up and putting st*roids and all kinds of things (in his body), but he is still a little boy.”
“… I would love to fight at 170 pounds, but I don’t wait for anyone. If he wants to do it, I’ll break his face. If he doesn’t want to do it, let someone come next.”
Masvidal’s agent claimed that McGregor wasn’t interested in the bout previously.
“Every time he’s ever tweeted, or anybody’s ever tweeted that name at us or Jorge, I do the following: I call [UFC executive] Hunter [Campbell], I say, ‘Hey Hunter, what’s good? You saw Conor?’” Kawa said last year on The MMA Hour. “[Hunter says], ‘Yeah, he doesn’t want that fight.’ OK, boom. Every single time. It never fails.
“I don’t know if that’s real, or not real, but I know that they said they’ve tried to make that fight a couple times – Conor will not take it. You’ve heard [UFC President] Dana [White], Jorge’s too big for him, and that’s the end of that story.”
Masvidal has a point with his comments – McGregor appears to have grown a size in his absence from training. And furthermore – he’s also not in the USADA pool. This effectively means he could theoretically be indulging in all kinds of PED use not available to athletes who are active on the roster.
As per USADA guidelines – one has to be in the testing pool for six months before being eligible to get a fight in the UFC. This is another reason why it’s unlikely that McGregor will return in 2022.
Naturally – he didn’t take these comments in kind and the two proceeded to have a sharp exchange on twitter.
