UFC 306 branded a 'tragedy' due to Conor McGregor's absence as teammate offers insight into camp for comeback

16/09/2024 16:11

Conor McGregor’s teammate Ciaran Clarke believes that the UFC’s biggest ever show this weekend should have featured the Irishman’s return.

The former two-weight world champion has been out of action for over three years since suffering a broken leg in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier. He is now actively pushing for a return to action after pulling out of his comeback bout with Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June.

And Clarke, one of Bellator’s top bantamweights, feels that they should have moved whatever was necessary to get McGregor on to Saturday night’s UFC 306 card in Vegas. It was the promotion’s most ambitious event ever as they brought sport to The Sphere, but the Irishman was nowhere to be seen.

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Conor McGregor’s comeback dealt further blow as Michael Chandler books new fight

Since February of last year, it has been confirmed that Conor McGregor would face Michael Chandler in his return to the octagon. The pair coached opposite one another last season on The Ultimate Fighter, and spent over a year building up to UFC 303 in June.

However, when McGregor suffered a broken toe, the bout was canceled. The Irishman was pushing for a new date in the latter half of this year, but it appears that has fallen by the wayside as pay-per-view dates begin to fill up.

And on Friday night disaster struck for McGregor as it was announced that Chandler would be taking a different fight in the meantime. He has signed up to face Charles Oliveira in the co-main event of UFC 309 on November 16 alongside Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic’s world heavyweight title fight.

Conor McGregor’s teammate believes he should have headlined UFC 306

Since being cleared to compete in 2022, McGregor has been training for his comeback, amid bouts of intense partying. He was out of action all of 2023, and it now seems he will miss 2024 as well with 2025 his likely comeback event.

But his teammate Ciaran Clarke believes that McGregor would have been ready for action by last weekend if needed. And he feels that a show as large in scale as the first sporting event at The Sphere should have been headlined by MMA’s biggest star.

“I think it would be amazing if they could have got something going by the end of the year,” Clarke told Bloody Elbow after his win over Tuomas Gronvall at Bellator Champions Series in London brought him to 10-0 as a professional. “It’s a tragedy that [UFC 306] at The Sphere is not Conor’s.

“I get it’s a big fight the two boys are great and it’s my division so I love watching the lads and stuff, especially Merab for obvious reasons, his style and everything. But I think that magnitude of that event, the money that went in, without Conor it’s very hard because there’s only one Conor McGregor.”

Conor McGregor’s teammate offers details from secret French training camp

Clarke knows McGregor’s training well, having traveled with him to France last year for an intense private training camp. At the time, no date was known for a comeback, but he was pushing to compete in December of 2023, which didn’t materialise.

“I was asked to go to Vegas,” Clarke said of McGregor’s camp for UFC 303. “I had to go a few weeks after because my friend was getting married and I was best man for it, so I could let him down and I was going to go over after but then the fight was pulled.

“Conor is back training and he is always training, trust me, I’ve been away with him. The networking I got from going away with Conor has been unbelievable, I’m working with Tristan Kennedy [nutritionist] out of that camp and I’ve seen the way that camp works.

“It was actually priceless for me to get away with him and see how Conor McGregor does it, it was brilliant.”

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