Darren Till does not believe Conor McGregor is ever going to return to fighting.
McGregor has spent the past two years on the sidelines, following his catastrophic leg injury against Dustin Poirier in their trilogy fight at UFC 264. In recent months, however, “The Notorious” has been teasing his return to the cage soon. Originally, McGregor was supposed to fight Michael Chandler after the two coached The Ultimate Fighter 31 opposite one another, with the bout loosely being targeted for the end of the year, but McGregor has still yet to re-enter the USADA testing pool and thus the fight still hasn’t been made. And Till doesn’t think it ever will be.
“Conor’s never coming back, in my opinion,” Till told SportsLens. “Conor’s struggling to let go. He doesn’t want to let it go. But it’s time to let go. He’s older, he doesn’t train like he used to. He’s got the money and his beautiful kids, and the only problem is that he just does not want to let it go. There’s going to come a day where he realizes he’s fighting with himself and has to let go.
“Every recording on Twitter he’s just drunk as f*** and I’m just crying my eyes out laughing at him. It will take him a while, but he’ll find his peace. My opinion of Conor is you have to respect what he’s done, but it’s time to let go. He’s struggling to let go.”
McGregor certainly isn’t letting go — he’s spent much of August hyping up a potential return. Over the past few weeks, McGregor repeatedly addressed his fighting situation, saying that the UFC may no longer be interested in him fighting Chandler, that the fight will happen in December despite the USADA difficulties (he later reversed course on this), and just this week he called out Tony Ferguson. None of that is the same as re-entering the USADA pool, but Till acknowledges that maybe McGregor is simply waiting for better timing.
“Maybe he’s not [struggling to let go],” Till said. “Maybe he’s going to come back and prove us all wrong. He might just not be ready in terms of testing or he just wants to keep his name out there and he’s thinking in terms of next year. It’s tough to know. He’s a smarter businessman than most, so you have to trust what he’s doing.”
But while McGregor’s future is still up in the air, Till on the other hand is champing at the bit to get back into a fight. In February, Till asked for and was granted his release by the UFC so he could pursue other interests. At the time, Till hinted at making the move to boxing, and now “The Gorilla” is all-in on that path, targeting a matchup with any of the biggest names running around the influencer boxing scene at the moment.
“I need to fight now. I’m so ready to fight,” Till said. “I’ve put a lot of time and effort and hard work in. As you can see, my shape has changed considerably this year. I’ve really dedicated myself this year, I really have. I just can’t wait to fight now. Mike Perry, Logan Paul, Dillon Danis, Jake Paul, Nate Diaz. Any f****** one, any f****** time. I’m ready.
“As always they can say you got beat in your last fight or whatever, but I’ve always showed up and I’ve always fought, injuries or not. I’m just so ready for it. I’m feeling powerful and big, so I probably need to trim up a little bit, but I’m good and I’m confident. I just want to get some sparring done and then get in there and just savagely beat someone or savagely get beaten myself! So what!”