McGregor’s octagon future in doubt as UFC chief White hints Notorious is interested in ‘fun projects’ away from fighting

CONOR McGREGOR’S UFC future is to be revealed after Fight Island, Dana White has revealed. McGregor, 32, retired in June, though White revealed he has held recent talks with the former two-division champion. But the promoter hinted it may not be a fighting return for the Irishman, who is ‘interested’ in ‘fun projects’ away from […]

CONOR McGREGOR’S UFC future is to be revealed after Fight Island, Dana White has revealed.

McGregor, 32, retired in June, though White revealed he has held recent talks with the former two-division champion.

But the promoter hinted it may not be a fighting return for the Irishman, who is ‘interested’ in ‘fun projects’ away from competition in the octagon.

White told BT Sport: “I talked to him a couple days ago, not talking about fighting right now. 

“We are working on a couple of other fun projects for him, he’s interested, so we’ll see if we can get it done. 

“If we do I’ll probably be talking about it after Fight Island.” 

McGregor won his first fight in three years in January, with a 40-second knockout against 37-year-old Donald Cerrone.

But his dream of a three-fight ‘season’ was soon dashed after the coronavirus pandemic halted his new found momentum.

He was then pushed further down the lightweight title picking order as Justin Gaethje, 31, won the interim title.

It sets him up with a unification against Khabib Nurmagomedov, 31, who McGregor was pushing to rematch, having been beaten in 2018.

Following frustration after finding himself frozen out of the title picture, The Notorious announced his third retirement in four years.

He then took a vacation in France with long-time partner Dee Devlin, where they announced their engagement.

But McGregor was soon caught up in a sexual assault allegation, resulting in his arrest for ‘indecent exposure’ last week in Corsica.

He was released without charge after spending two days in custody and has completely denied the allegations.

Despite seemingly enjoying the retired life abroad, his manager Audie Attar backed up fresh suggestions McGregor is ready to make a UFC return in some capacity.

Attar told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani: “We had some very interesting talks with the UFC recently. 

“We are excited about the future and working on some fun things. Exciting things to come in the near future.”