Charles Oliveira's manager doesn't expect Conor McGregor to ever fight again
01/27/2025 11:00 AM
UFC CEO Dana White expected Conor McGregor to enter the octagon in "early 2025", and then he shifted his prediction to "in the fall this year". Others have a different expectation for the future of "The Notorious" as a fighter, though.
Diego Lima, the manager and coach for former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, doesn't consider McGregor an option for Oliveira's next bout in the UFC "because I don't think Conor fights anymore". Speaking with MMA Fighting, Lima said he believes the Irishman has made so much money inside and outside the cage he has lost hunger and desire to compete.
"There's no reason to bark up the wrong tree, I honestly don't believe anymore," Lima said. "When he achieved everything he could and became the highest-paid athlete in the world, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, Floyd Mayweather and every NFL and NBA player, he got to a point where no one imagined a MMA fighter would ever get.
"You don't train with the same hunger, you don't have the same focus. And maybe he's not wrong. He's reached something many considered unreachable. Honestly, I don't believe he fights again. 'Oh, but what if he does fight again?' Then we would be discussing what ifs. Would that be cool? Of course it would. Of course that Charles wants to fight him. But there's no point discussing it because, in my opinion, he doesn't fight anymore. He's not an option right now."
McGregor joined the UFC in April 2013 and fought seven times in two and a half years to win the undisputed featherweight title. Since then, excluding a very lucrative boxing showdown with Mayweather, McGregor has only put gloves on seven times in just over six years, going 3-4 in the UFC.
For Lima, the fact that McGregor has used his fortune to build a camp around him every time he fights, instead of being part of a team, has also changed his fire as an athlete.
"In my opinion, a fighter without a [team] flag is a fighter without a spirit," Lima said. "More important than the war itself is who's next to you in it. People are selling themselves a lot in MMA today, unfortunately. People change teams and coaches like you change underwear. You'll never know who's in your corner. You're there fighting and you hire a person to be in your corner but you don't know what that person wants. Sometimes they want you to win just so you hire and pay them again. Is that the right person to have by your side? Someone who just wants your victory for your money?
"I think [MMA] has lost the essence of the martial art a little bit. Although MMA is a job, the sport that grows the most in the world, MMA is completely different from soccer. You have 10 other people to touch the ball to in soccer, you can be substituted. MMA is the most team sport of the individual sports. The cage closes and you're alone there with the other person. It's your nose, your blood, so it's extremely important to know who's by your side. I think that a fighter that treats himself as an object has no essence to watch for."
