Conor McGregor, in a series of now-deleted tweets, teased about moving up to the middleweight division sometime in the future. McGregor, who is a former UFC featherweight and lightweight champion, has fought in three divisions in the past, including welterweight. Moving to the middleweight division would be a new feat for him to conquer.
Taking to Twitter on Saturday night, McGregor declared that he was going to give the middleweight a trial and he would be a “big fridge” in the division. He wrote: “I’m gonna give middleweight a go at some point 100%.”
He then added: “I’m a big fridge at middleweight. But hot like an oven same time, ye know yourself, catch it on PPV. Don’t know tho. It be hard work. Those rounds against those middle/lhw, they were alternating fresh each round. I’ve put in psycho work doing this job over the years.”
Although the tweets have since been deleted, it does not mean that the Irishman should not be taken seriously. McGregor has accomplished a lot in the different divisions he has been in, and there is no doubt that if be puts in the work, he would do well in the middleweight division as well.
But there’s the question of how soon that can be. At age 34, McGregor does not have a lot of fight left in him. He has not fought in over a year, and there is no word on how soon he can be back. He recently removed himself from the USADA testing pool, to take time to heal his broken leg. Although, he said he would be back in the pool in February, that has further cast doubt to whether he would even fight in 2023.
The USADA requires fighters to be in their pool for at least 6 months. This means McGregor would only be eligible to fight in August, and the chances that he would get a fixture soon remain to be seen.
Leon Osamor