Morning Report | Chael Sonnen intrigued by Conor McGregor Irish presidency run: ‘I actually would vote for him’

Chael Sonnen can’t help but wonder what a Conor McGregor political career would look like.

“The Notorious” recently announced his intention to run for President of Ireland, a head of state role that is mostly ceremonial. Regardless, McGregor has been vocal about wanting to take on the current administration, and he has vowed to make sweeping changes should he be elected.

In a YouTube reaction clip, Sonnen attempted to grasp McGregor’s logic, while also stating that were he an Irish citizen eligible to vote, he would give McGregor the nod.

“The question is does Conor have any political aspirations and could Conor get elected in Ireland?” Sonnen said. “There’s parts about Conor that I would definitely vote for, but there’s also a lot of people that I know in Ireland and they do not care for him. One of the very first things that he did is bought property elsewhere. Guys always try to make that mistake. They try to wave a flag over their head and then wave the Bahamas all over their social media. Wave a new boat they bought that they’re storing in Italy while trying to act—it’s just one of those things.”

“So I don’t know that Conor could get elected and I don’t know that that’s my business. I don’t get a vote; if I did, I actually would vote for him.”

McGregor, a former two-division UFC champion and one of the most popular athletes in modern combat sports history, looks to enter the political realm amid a long hiatus from competition. The 36-year-old most recently fought at UFC 264 in July 2021, when he suffered a broken leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier. Since then, McGregor has remained out of action as he worked on rehabbing his injury, pursuing interests outside of the cage, and dealt with a pair of sexual assault civil suits.

His announced return at UFC 303 this past June against rival Michael Chandler fell through when McGregor was forced to withdraw due to a toe injury. Sonnen has previously voiced his doubts about McGregor ever fighting again and he’s not sure whether a jump to politics or an MMA comeback are more likely.

“Conor McGregor is going to run for the president of Ireland,” Sonnen said. “Conor McGregor is going to return to the UFC. Those are both ridiculous statements founded on no bed of truth or support. Those are both statements that are co-signed, supported and backed up by a grand total of no one. But does that make them untrue? Does it make one of them less true?

“The idea of Conor going into politics, of what he knows nothing about, isn’t the disqualifier from politics. I know lots of politicians that don’t have any idea what politics are about. I know a number of people that would like to stop those kinds of politicians and can’t and they don’t get it when the election’s over they go, ‘He doesn’t even know what it’s about?’ It doesn’t always work against you.’ If you’ve got a nice smile and an ability to stand in front of your local news with a message, you’ve got a very good likelihood or at least a better so likelihood of getting elected into politics than the expert that knows everything about them, but pees his pants when he talks onstage in front of people.”

Another question Sonnen asked is if McGregor’s political ambitions could be tied to his reluctance to step back into the octagon or the UFC’s inability to strike a deal with the longtime box-office draw. Sonnen believes the circumstances will have to be just right for McGregor to make that walk to the cage again.

“I don’t think that Conor has the grit to bite down one more time, to prepare his body for a worse case, which is to have to defend itself against unarmed attack at all times and in his spot, main event, that’s up for 25 minutes,” Sonnen said. “That is a ridiculous thing to ask any human to do. And when the UFC is scratching their head and scratching their head and banging their head on the wall and they can’t figure out what they’re doing wrong and why they can’t get Conor to sign, they can change that one thing. They can make it three five-minute rounds and your likelihood just by the numbers of getting Conor to put his name on the paper will go up 70 percent.

“The UFC did not get Khabib to go do fight No. 30 and to this day this is because they did not have enough commas and zeros, when in fact the number they needed to change was the weight class of 155 is what got you the ‘no.’ If you would have made it 170, you’d have got Khabib to 30-0. Numbers matter. Conor, two jobs, president and cagefighter. Which one is less likely?”