Chael Sonnen says you can stick a fork in Conor McGregor: He’s
done. | 📷: Jason Burgos/Sherdog
Chael
Sonnen believes Conor
McGregor’s
Ultimate Fighting Championship career took a major hit
following the anticlimactic loss to Max
Holloway at
UFC 329.
McGregor suffered a knee injury seconds into his rematch with
Holloway. He then wasn’t able to find stability and repeatedly fell
while attempting strikes, prompting the referee to stop the bout.
With the Irishman’s last two main events ending in unfortunate
injuries, Sonnen questions whether he can headline another
card.
Advertisement
‘You cannot main event him’: Chael Sonnen on Conor
McGregor
In McGregor’s last outing prior to UFC 329, he suffered a leg break
in his trilogy fight against Dustin
Poirier in 2021. A lengthy stint on the sidelines ensued before
the Holloway rematch came together. According to Sonnen, there were
no takeaways from the former two-division champ’s return.
“It was one of these things where there was nothing to take away
from it,” Sonnen told MMA Junkie after the fight. “There
was no redeemable quality. I think Conor mentally was in the right
spot, but the contest is physical.”
Sonnen then outlined other examples of big stars on losing streaks
looking to headline upon their returns, including Chuck
Liddell, Brock
Lesnar and Anderson
Silva. He claims UFC CEO Dana
White might not be keen on another McGregor main event.
“If you were to take [a serious injury] away, if we were to say, ‚Boy, we got lucky, in fact, a step further, the [doctor]
misdiagnosed this, he’s completely fine.‘ We don’t see him fight
again,” Sonnen added. “You cannot main event him. You cannot
repackage and sell this story, nor would they be interested. Chuck
Liddell was very close friends with Dana White. Brock Lesnar just
wanted to do it again. Anderson Silva said, ‚Hey, put me in one
more time.‘ Dana does not give back on that.”