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13th October 2024
09:40am BST
Conor McGregor has announced the date and location of his eagerly-anticipated UFC return and has revealed the name of the man who will join him in the octagon.
The Irishman was scheduled to fight Michael Chandler last June, but was forced to cancel the event after suffering a broken toe in training.
The former featherweight and lightweight champion hasn’t been in the octagon since his defeat to Dustin Poirier in 2021 and will be keen to set his UFC record straight.
Last month, while sat ringside for the Anthony Joshua and Daniel Dubois bout at Wembley Stadium, McGregor teased a 2025 return while speaking to DAZN.
"It will be 2025," said the Dublin native. "We will see. My opponent that I had scheduled… it is what it is. I take it on board and rock on.
"My job is to go to the gym and be in shape, whenever it is and wherever it is," he added. "I will be 100 per cent ready.
"I must get two fights in 2025. It’s the promised land. Who knows (who the next opponent will be). It does not matter. Whoever, let’s see. I’d like it to be Chandler. I wish him well and see where it goes."
Now, while attending a BKFC event in Marbella, Spain this weekend, McGregor told MMA reporter Donagh Corby of Bloody Elbow that his comeback would take place on "February 1 in Saudi Arabia" before insisting that the man standing across from him would be New Zealand fighter "Dan Hooker."
This apparent fight seemed to have been news to Hooker himself, who was also present at the event in support of American fighter Oscar Willis.
Hooker said of McGregor: "I’ve got an opponent early next year that I’m focused on, he’s just a busy man.
"From coming over here and seeing all the things that he’s got going on, if I had that amount of businesses and that much money I don’t think you’d catch me anywhere near a cage for the rest of my days.
"So I can understand. It kind of is what it is, I’m going to fight between January and March and you know me, it doesn’t really matter who that is. I always say yes."
Could that opponent be McGregor on February 1st? It certainly sounds like it.
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