Coach Owen Roddy: “Conor McGregor eager to set fight date following court proceedings”
Well MMA fans, Conor McGregor has finally hurdled over the one obstacle that kept him from signing on for possibly one of the biggest UFC lightweight championship fights in history, the outcome of his court hearing which happened early this morning.
The result? McGregor agreed to the rumored plea deal, and was thus cleared of all felonies and charges pressed against him from the UFC 223 bus incident.
What does this mean? yep you guessed it, The Notorious one will be back inside a UFC Octagon.
Elated an relieved knowing this situation is now behind them, McGregor’s manager told ESPN it’s “back to business”
In terms of his client’s MMA/UFC career, following the positive result from today’s court proceedings, McGregor’s striking coach Owen Roddy believes with the all the legal stuff officially out of the way, his pupil will now look to “push for a fight” against the Russian Lightweight Champion.
“That’s what we all envisaged would happen, and it’s just great to be able to get back to doing what we love to do,” Roddy told MMA Fighting.
“Conor has been eager to get back out there; he’s been eager to get something in front of him, to set a date and to push for fight. I think now that it’s out of the way, the potential for Conor to get back in there is very, very high.”
Roddy insists that Conor’s MMA career was merely just “put on hold” until he dealt with his legal issues.
“Everything was put on hold because of this. We all had hoped that we would get the news that we got today, but of course, nothing could have been set in stone before the decision came through. Anything could have happened, so everything had to be put on hold until Conor got this sorted. I know we are all eager to see what’s coming next and I’m sure something’s going to lined up.
Roddy is also confident that the long awaited title clash between Khabib and Conor will happen likely before this years end.
“That seems about right,” Roddy replied when asked if a 2018 showdown between McGregor and Nurmagomedov was likely. “I’m sure it’s all going to be negotiated now. I would like to see that fight this year and I think the frontrunner to be Conor’s opponent for his return is Khabib. As I said before, he’s eager to get something going, he’s been training hard. He’s been doing all sorts of wrestling and jiu-jitsu — he’s just been enjoying his training. I’m sure he’s going to strike a deal with the UFC, and whenever he’s in there, we’ll be prepared.”
