Conor McGregor Drops Major UFC Contract Update That Will Excite Fans

"The Notorious" intends to leverage himself as much as possible with UFC comeback confirmed.

Jeff Bottari-Zuffa LLC

Former UFC two-division champion Conor McGregor is 47 days away from making his return to the Octagon in a rematch against former UFC Featherweight and "BMF" champion Max Holloway.

With under seven weeks to go until McGregor's five-year return culminates in the main event of UFC 329, McGregor has already started doing the media rounds to preview the fight and address his current relationship with UFC brass.

In a nutshell, things are status-quo from McGregor's end all things considered.

"I've got a great deal off the UFC," McGregor told Mac Energy. "They honored me, finally."

Having said that, Uncrowned Combat's Ariel Helwani told The New York Post that behind-the-scenes, the UFC coming to a deal with McGregor was not as easy as it sounds.

Conor McGregor's UFC Future Examined

(Zuffa LLC)

“This is a massive, massive deal for the UFC and for Paramount+ to get him back in the mix,” Helwani said. "Here’s the big story. This is the big business story. Conor comes back. They [the UFC] didn’t sign him to an extension. They wanted to, he didn’t want to."

Helwani reiterated that the fight versus Holloway would be McGregor's first of two remaining on his current UFC contract. Therefore, his next move is extremely contingent on how the fight on Saturday, July 11, plays out.

“With the streaming world, with Netflix, with Amazon, all these people paying big top dollar for sport, could you imagine a Conor McGregor fight on the open market? What do you think Netflix would pay for that? They would pay a lot of money," Helwani said.

Helwani is adamant that McGregor is going to fufill his end of the bargain.

“Let’s see how he looks in this fight, let’s see how he looks in that second fight, and let’s see what kind of dollars he could command around this time next year," Helwani said.

Conor McGregor To Fight Out UFC Deal

Chris Unger-Zuffa LL

McGregor's manager, Audie Attar, echoed much of Helwani's reporting and McGregor's recent remark toward the UFC.

“He is definitely looking to stay active,” Attar told MMAJunkie. “Next fight, we’re not gonna wait a year, that’s for sure. We’ll see what happens from there. I don’t think we’re looking too far ahead at things. We’re just taking it one step at a time.”

McGregor defeated Holloway in Aug. 2013 by decision before eventually becoming a world champion 27 months later at 145 pounds before his eventual transition to 155.

Should McGregor come away victorious at T-Mobile Arena, things get interesting very quickly