Road House Obligations To Blame For ‘Notorious’ Return Delay

Conor McGregor is about to be able to shift his focus fully back to MMA.

The former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Featherweight and Lightweight champion is officially a movie star thanks to his first role in the new film Road House. The reboot of the classic Patrick Swayze-led action-thriller is now streamable on Prime Video as of today (Thurs., March 21, 2024).

McGregor, 35, has recently gone on a worldwide press tour for the film alongside lead actor, Jake Gyllenhaal. Throughout the tour, “The Notorious” has been asked numerous times about his possible return to action against UFC Lightweight contender, Michael Chandler. Ultimately, the match up was expected to happen late last year before several variables came into play. With hints of frustration sprinkled in from McGregor over the past three months, UFC CEO, Dana White, disputes any such notions.

“There’s no lack of communication. Not at all,” White told the Pound 4 Pound podcast (h/t MMA Fighting). “You know where Conor is tonight? He’s in New York City for the premiere of Road House. He has obligations right now to promote this movie. So he’s been flying all over the world, going to all the premieres of the launch of this movie. This is an obligation that he has to do. It is what it is. He committed to this movie. He has obligations to this movie. He can’t do both.

“So once this movie launches, which is Thursday, this thing launches Thursday the 21st, and boom — I don’t know what his obligations are once it launches, then Conor can get back in the gym and start training,” he concluded. “Like full-time, getting ready for a camp.”

McGregor has most highlighted a summertime return, and he maintained that timeline when he recently claimed “all systems go” for the Chandler clash. White or the promotion has yet to confirm how true that is, but UFC’s boss still speaks glowingly of his sport-transcending Irish megastar.

“Conor McGregor, for a guy who was on the dole or whatever his situation was when he came into the UFC, for a guy that had never done big business, he’s a pretty good f—king businessman,” White said. “He’s been a great partner to us. I like to be a good partner back.

“Conor needed this time to take off, handle his obligations, and now, once this is over, he can get back into full-time training — which means from Thursday on, we can start talking about fights for Conor,” he concluded.