Conor McGregor still training MMA despite preparing for Floyd Mayweather

McGregor is still very much focused on MMA despite preparing to box Mayweather on Aug. 26.

Although there are still doubts about Conor McGregor’s future in mixed martial arts, the UFC lightweight champion seems very optimistic about a return to the Octagon by the end of the year.

‘The Notorious’ is currently gearing up to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. in a mega-money boxing bout next month, bringing in several amateur and professional boxers to help prepare for the ‘The Best Ever’ on August 26.

Despite this, McGregor is still keeping his MMA game sharp by continuing to train Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and wrestling, per BT Sport.

“I believe I’ll come out of this fight without a scratch,” McGregor said of his fight against Mayweather (h/t Jed Meshew of MMA Fighting). “[Take] a couple weeks to refresh my jiu-jitsu and my wrestling - not that I’ve stopped training that either, I’ve still kept up on that, just less - and then we’ll see what happens.”

McGregor has teased at fighting the undefeated Khabib Nurmagomedov in his UFC return, and the Irishman believes it would be historic to fight ‘The Eagle’ on Russian soil.

“That’s certainly an option that I’m exploring,” McGregor said of a potential fight with Khabib. “That would be a spectacle. It’d be like something out of Rocky. I suppose this whole story is like a Rocky story, right? So why not face a man in his home country, and a crazy place like Russia. It’s certainly something I’d like to do. There’s a couple of options on the table so let’s see what unfolds.”

Despite Nurmagomedov being ranked as the No. 1 lightweight contender in the world, injury and weight cutting complications have effectively kept him sidelined for the better part of a year.

Nurmagomedov was expected to meet Tony Ferguson for the interim title earlier in March but the 28-year-old talent was forced to withdraw at the last minute due to a disastrous weight cut.

McGregor, who celebrated his 29th birthday on Friday during the final stop of the MayMac media world tour in London, England, captured the lightweight strap when he battered Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.

Since then, the SBG Ireland product has been negotiating and preparing to fight Mayweather at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The blockbuster fight takes place on August 26 and is expected to surpass Mayweather-Pacquiao as the biggest pay-per-view event in combat sports history.