Conor McGregor\u2019s long-awaited UFC comeback may not happen unless he rediscovers the mentality that made him a global superstar, said former training partner Artem Lobov.<\/p>\n
McGregor hasn\u2019t stepped into the Octagon since his crushing defeat to Dustin Poirier in July 2021. His planned 2023 return against Michael Chandler fell apart after an injury in training camp, and despite repeated teases, the Irishman has yet to make his comeback.<\/p>\n
Still, McGregor remains intent on featuring in UFC\u2019s historic White House event scheduled for June 2026, even naming his opponent ahead of time as Dana White looks to build \u201cthe greatest card of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lobov, however, isn\u2019t convinced. The Russian-born fighter, who resumes his MMA career at PFL Champions Series 3 in Dubai on October 3, believes McGregor\u2019s current mindset is holding him back. \u201cSo, if it\u2019s the Conor that we see now, no chance! This fight is not happening. And it shouldn\u2019t even be happening because he\u2019s not in the right mindset,\u201d Lobov told SPORTbible.<\/p>\n
Instead, Lobov says the only way McGregor fights again is if the \u201cold Conor\u201d returns. \u201cI want to see the return of the old Conor,\u201d Lobov explained. \u201cThe Conor that walked into fight [Chad] Mendes with both legs messed up. That camp was a rehab camp. Opponent changed, knee gone\u2026 who cares?! He walked in there and won. He\u2019s a winner. He\u2019s a champ.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Conor McGregor\u2019s long-awaited UFC comeback may not happen unless he rediscovers the mentality that made him a global superstar, said former training partner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":495669,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[19415,20541,18148],"news_category":[16710,16715],"gn_keywords":[19416,1093,1072],"acf":{"news_source":"","link_picture":"","announce":"Lobo says White House fight for the Irishman is not happening","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495668"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495668"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495668\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495670,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/495668\/revisions\/495670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495668"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=495668"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=495668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}