Less likely for Conor McGregor — becoming Ireland’s president or actually fighting in UFC again? It’s a toss-up

Big news, fight fans. Conor McGregor is no longer pretending that he’s going to return to professional fighting any time soon. That’s because he’s too busy pretending he’s going to be president of Ireland.

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Like a child who announces that he no longer wants to be a dinosaur because he’s decided to be a cowboy astronaut instead, McGregor has swapped one illusion for another. The hell of it is, it’s hard to say which is more unrealistic for him at this point.

“And now entering the Octagon, the notorious President of Ireland, Conor McGregor,’” the former UFC champion said at Thursday’s BKFC press conference, explaining that he’d already passed up one fight offer and is unsure when he’ll fight again due to his current political ambitions. “F***ing right, I will [fight while serving as President of Ireland]. Of course, are you crazy? That’s part of why I want to do it, to be announced as the President of Ireland having a fight. Imagine that.”

Yes, imagine. While you’re at it, might as well imagine that he’ll ride to the cage on a unicorn, since that’s about as likely as the rest of it.

Look, McGregor is not going to be President of Ireland. That’s the first and most obvious thing here. Even if he didn’t face significant obstacles to even getting nominated and becoming eligible to run (more on that here, from Uncrowned’s resident Irishman Petesy Carroll), he is deeply, deeply unpopular in his home country. A 2023 poll showed that only 8% of Irish voters would consider supporting him — and that was roughly a year before he was found liable for sexual assault in an Irish civil court.

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Remember how passionately and vocally the Irish people were in their support of McGregor during his rise to UFC superstardom? That has completely evaporated now. Actually, it’s worse than that. Evaporated suggests merely an absence. Instead, there is a palpable resentment. McGregor, with his many sexual assault allegations and his variety of other crimes caught on camera, has become an embarrassment to his home country.

They took his name off the whiskey. They took his sculpture out of the wax museum. Even people who have already paid for his likeness, like the makers of the “Hitman” video game, want nothing to do with him now. Does that sound like someone poised to win a popular vote?

Even if he were to run and win election, the Irish presidency is a largely ceremonial role. This stuff he’s been saying about how his country needs him and his anti-immigration platform, how his “heart bleeds for [his] country” because of these perceived problems — the job of president wouldn’t really put him in much of a position to do anything about it.

Also, the president’s term lasts seven years in Ireland. Have you seen what seven years looks like in McGregor’s life? Seven years ago he had one UFC loss and zero sexual assault allegations. Seven years ago he attacked a bus full of fighters with a hand truck and we all still held him in high enough regard that we were actually surprised by it. Just imagine where he’ll be in another seven.

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So here’s where the reasonable observer might ask: Why on earth would this man hit pause on the one career he could still conceivably have for the stated purpose of pursuing one he has zero shot at?

And the most likely answer is also the simplest: Because he doesn’t actually want to fight anyway.

McGregor has fought three times in the past five years and he lost two of them. The last time he accepted a fight, he ended up pulling out with an injured toe. That was almost a year ago, and there hasn’t been a single credible whisper of a comeback since then. He’s 36 years old and is known more for his nights on the town than his days in the gym.

Face it, McGregor is just not about this life anymore. Which is fine, honestly. He has plenty of money and his best athletic years are clearly behind him, so why come back and get beat up by a hungry, working fighter if you don’t need to?

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But it’s ironic. With his darkly checkered past, MMA is maybe the one arena in which he’d still be very welcome. We know the UFC wouldn’t hesitate to put him back in the cage. Being a good person is in no way a requirement to be a headliner in fight sports. He could absolutely still do this job, regardless of whether or not he could still do this job.

The fact that he’d prefer to talk up a fanciful run for public office in a country that despises him simply tells us that he doesn’t really want this anymore.