Conor McGregor took the end of his comeback hard. Dillon Danis, his friend and longtime training partner, told MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck that McGregor sank low after his knee gave out against Max Holloway at UFC 329, and that he has since pulled himself together in Los Angeles while he rehabs a reconstructed ACL.
“He was in a dark place,” Danis said. He wouldn’t share specifics of their conversations, calling them personal, but he asked people to imagine waiting five years for a return and watching it end almost immediately.
The update is better than that. Danis said McGregor’s head is “a lot better” now and laid out a rehab setup that sounds more like a hospital wing than a party house. “He has a 24/7 nurse with him,” Danis said. “He’s doing all the exercises.” He added that McGregor has isolated himself in L.A. and is focused on fighting again.
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Danis also took a swing at anyone writing McGregor off. “There’s no one that will tell him he’s not fighting again,” he said, adding that once McGregor locks in on a goal, “it’s blinders.”
“I talk to him almost everyday and he’s in a good spot right now and I’m happy to see it,” Danis said.
How we got here
The Holloway rematch in July was McGregor’s first fight since 2021. It lasted 69 seconds. A clearly compromised McGregor was saved by referee Mike Beltran, and the knee required ACL reconstruction surgery. Holloway got that massive headliner after losing the BMF title to Charles Oliveira in March, which Oliveira is still openly annoyed about.
McGregor, 38, is a former two-division UFC champion with one fight left on his contract. He has said repeatedly that he wants to finish that deal in 2027, and he has floated International Fight Week as the target, an event that typically lands in July. Nothing has been offered or booked. After that fight, McGregor has said he plans to become a free agent.
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That free agency is already drawing interest from an old dance partner. Floyd Mayweather, who stopped McGregor in Round 10 of their 2017 boxing match to finish 50-0, said on the PBD Podcast this week that he thinks the two “may lock up again.” Mayweather also accused McGregor of taking “my whole swag” to the UFC, which is a funny thing to say about the guy who helped you make a claimed $300 million.
Danis has his own business this week. He faces Arman Tsarukyan at RAF 14 on Friday in Las Vegas for the promotion’s inaugural middleweight crossover title. Tsarukyan is 7-1 in RAF, and Danis already has a loss there to Colby Covington.
Quick take
Credit to Danis for one thing: he answered the question straight. No never-been-better spin, no vague emoji post. He said his friend was hurting, and that’s more honest than most camp updates you’ll ever read. The nurse and the isolation tell me McGregor is taking this rehab seriously, which matters because a reconstructed ACL on a 38-year-old who has fought once in five years is a long road, and July 2027 is not very far away. Danis gets the first word on McGregor this week. On Friday night in Vegas, Tsarukyan gets a word in on Danis.
