Conor McGregor’s Boxing Coach Owen Roddy Believes MMA Fans are Missing Out

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight and featherweight champion Conor McGregor has not fought inside the Octagon since defeating Eddie Alvarez in November 2016 and his boxing coach Owen Roddy believes his absence has left a gaping hole in the sport.

McGregor famously coerced boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather Jr. out of retirement for a one-off boxing fight in August last year and since then has been on the periphery.

The Irishman made headlines at UFC 223 media day after he and a large group of men were allegedly let into the Barclays Center by credentialed members of his Mac Life promotional team. McGregor attacked a bus holding the red corner fighters for the event and was filmed throwing a loading dolly into the window, resulting in Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg having to withdraw from their fights due to injuries sustained from the shattered glass.

Roddy recently talked with Express Sport in an exclusive interview to discuss his star pupil and talked about how determined McGregor is to get his UFC career back on track after being stripped of the lightweight title earlier this month.

“Just to have him back in the cage, I think that’s more important than anything else. He’s training, he’s looking good,” Roddy said.

“We can’t really talk about when he wants to return. But he’s adamant he’s getting back.”

Roddy says McGregor brings something unique to the UFC that many fighters try to replicate with varying levels of success. He believes there’s a different aura that surrounds a McGregor fight, and he claims that the UFC and mixed martial arts fans are missing out.

Statistically speaking he’s not wrong, as McGregor is the biggest pay-per-view draw in MMA history, having headlined four out of the six highest-selling UFC pay-per-view events.

“For me, the sooner (he’s back) the better. The UFC is really missing Conor, I believe,” Roddy said. “And I think everybody is missing the whole extravaganza of a Conor McGregor fight. There’s nothing like it in the world.”

“And I think the people in the world want to see it again. The sooner the better.

”There’s no indication of who it will be, but it doesn’t really matter, to be honest,” Roddy said. “I’ve said this before: The draw is Conor. The opponent is just somebody there to go in against him.”

“It’s whatever fight makes sense,” he added. “The biggest draw will get the chance to fight Conor.”

UFC matchmakers have a difficult decision to make in their star-studded lightweight division as to who gets the first shot at the newly crowned champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. McGregor was never defeated as the lightweight champion, but did not defend the belt. Tony Ferguson was the interim king and was originally meant to face the Dagestani, although he injured himself shooting promotional work in the lead up to their fight. Kevin Lee and Dustin Poirier have shot into contention with their impressive recent victories over Edson Barboza and Justin Gaethje respectively, and then you have Eddie Alvarez, who believes he has the best style to defeat the champion.

Speculation aside, McGregor must first attend his court date on June 14 to answer his charges of three counts of assault and one count of criminal mischief.