Conor McGregor opens up about fighting future: ‘It’s to the grave’

Conor McGregor doesn’t plan on retiring anytime soon.

McGregor, 35, appears to be just months away from his highly anticipated return. “The Notorious” was forced on the sidelines after breaking his leg in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021, but has capitalized on his time off by making his acting debut, where he starred in “Road House” alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.

McGregor is expected to face Michael Chandler next, possibly during International Fight Week on June 29. Pointing to 57-year-old Mike Tyson, who’s still active and scheduled to box Jake Paul on July 20, McGregor plans on fighting until the wheels fall off.

“Mike Tyson now is fighting Jake Paul. He fought Roy Jones, also,” McGregor told TNT Sports. “There you go: That’s an older guy. When he was fighting Roy Jones Jr., something that really stuck out to me was he was asked – Roy Jones Jr., also an aged guy, retired for so long. Why? Recalibrate your competition. There’s a reason that in jiu-jitsu tournaments there’s like the veteran division and all this. So I don’t really feel like I could ever call it a day to it until I’m laid out flat, and that’s it.

“In a box and going down into the ground – that’s when I’ll call it a day. Something that really struck me with Mike Tyson was he was asked in an interview around the Roy Jones Jr. fight, what do you think Cus D’Amato – who was his mentor and coach – what do you think Cus D’Amato would say to you after all these years. Why come back now? And what Tyson said was, what Cus would say to me is, ‘What took you so long?’ That really hit me.”

McGregor referenced the likes of Georges St-Pierre, Alexander Volkanovski, and Dustin Poirier, who have all spoken out about their mental health, and how the pressure of fighting has weighed on them throughout the years.

As McGregor looks to come back from a three-year long layoff, he talked about the importance of resting the mind. Regardless of age, he also knows he isn’t short of options.

“I’m aware that is present, that feeling and that thing whatever it is, but I’m also aware that rest, recuperation, recalibration – I’m not going to be 40-odd and looking at the 19-year-old wonder kid from wherever he’s from,” McGregor said. “Even though they might be calling me out. Look at all my potential opponents I have.

“I have gangs of opponents that I have history with – trilogies, secondary fights, fresh fights even. These are all similar age to me. So if these people are similar age to me and I have the audience’s interest – which I do, who’s to say these fights won’t take place whenever they’ll take place. It’s to the grave. It’s to the motherf*cking grave.”