‘Off We Go Again!’

Conor McGregor is back in the gym preparing for his comeback fight. Again. Will he make it into the cage this time?

Conor McGregor may not be home in Ireland training, but he’s making do on the road as he begins to prepare for an eventual UFC comeback.

The Mac’s longtime coach John Kavanagh mentioned that they were “training remotely together” as McGregor tours the United States pushing his Forged Irish Stout, and now we’re getting a look at McGregor back in the gym … again … for what he claims will be a magnificent comeback fight. Eventually.

“First spar back, off we go again,” McGregor wrote on Instagram alongside several short clips of “The Notorious” grappling and sparring one-on-one. The training is slow and deliberate, but Conor’s precision, head position, and timing are on display in the short clips. He leans back and makes his training partner miss. He jumps in with an uppercut to straight left, knocking his sparring partner back. Not bad for a first spar.

McGregor has been in and out of training camps several times since recovering from a badly broken leg. All sorts of delays keep happening, from issues with USADA to Road House promotional duties to a broken pinky toe. It’s gotten to the point where some people think McGregor may never fight again. Or at least not until the UFC can use him to secure the bag on a multi-billion dollar broadcast deal.

The big question right now is whether McGregor returns for the final UFC pay-per-view of the year in December, or if he’s been pushed back to January or February. Sources tell MMA Mania the UFC still has Conor scheduled to fight Michael Chandler in December. It’s all just a matter of the announcement schedule now.

As always with the UFC, anything can change at any moment. But right now the plan is to end the year big with back-to-back blockbuster pay-per-views.