Getty Image / Megan Briggs
Conor McGregor has been keeping himself busy lately.
He is one of the coaches on the season of The Ultimate Fighter that is currently airing.
McGregor also recently sent the mascot for the Miami Heat to the hospital with a punch during a bit he was a part of during Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
Unfortunately, one thing McGregor hasn’t been busy with is actually fighting in the UFC.
It has been nearly two years since the last time fans saw McGregor step into the Octagon.
Part of the reason for his absence is because that last fight saw him suffer a major leg injury in a loss to Dustin Poirier.
However, McGregor was expected to have returned by now and the UFC would surely have liked him to be able to capitalize on any hype from this season of TUF by fighting Michael Chandler around the end of the show.
That definitely won’t be happening as the show ends in a couple of months and McGregor will have to wait 6 months after entering the USADA testing pool before he can compete again.
At this point, it seems we are getting close to McGregor’s only fight this year being against a mascot.
According to VerdictMMA, McGregor only has a couple of days to enter the testing pool or it will be too late for him to compete on the last pay-per-view card of the year.
Conor McGregor has 48 hours left to enter the USADA testing pool if he's going to fight at UFC 296 which is the final PPV of the year.
If he doesn't enter 6 month testing pool by Friday, he will not be fighting in 2023 per the rules of USADA. pic.twitter.com/0l8muMBHdv
— Verdict (@VerdictMMA) June 14, 2023
I’m not sure how having Conor McGregor on this season of The Ultimate Fighter has impacted ratings, but it’s starting to seem like the hype of him being on the show is going to go to waste.
There’s still the chance that McGregor rejoins the pool in the next couple of days, but it’s getting more and more likely that fans are going to have to wait until 2024 to see him fight again.