01 February 2023 , 12:52
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Conor McGregor has been accused of "chickening out" of a fight with fellow former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.
Oliveira regularly called for a big-money fight with McGregor, who has won just once at the weight in the UFC and lost his sole fight against Dustin Poirier during the Brazilian's reign. But the Irishman is taking longer than expected to return from his broken leg and the fight never came close to materialising.
And the the former champion is still keen to face his fellow title holder, even though it seems unlikely. Oliveira managed to win the belt and defend his title once before he was stripped even though he beat Justin Gaethje after missing weight, before losing to Islam Makhachev last year. Meanwhile, McGregor has never defended any of his titles in the UFC despite winning at two weights.
“There are no fools here," Oliveira told fans during a Q&A session alongside fellow former champion Rafael Dos Anjos and current middleweight champion Alex Pereira. "Everybody knows we want this fight because he’ll give us a lot of money, but I do think he’s a guy that needs to be hyped. I’ve asked for this fight plenty of times and he never says anything.
"I’ll be ready to fight him the day he wants, but I won’t call him out anymore. McGregor chickened out a long time ago. He handpicks his fights. I think he looks at the guy and thinks ‘I can beat this one,’ and then he signs the contract. He’s right not to fight me because he knows what will happen.”
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McGregor is likely to return at welterweight, where it is expected that he will coach on The Ultimate Fighter before facing one of Tony Ferguson or Michael Chandler. However, another option could be Dos Anjos, with whom he was matched for a title fight in early 2016 before the Brazilian pulled out with an injury.
“Conor picks his fights,” dos Anjos said during the same Q&A. “Like Charles said, everybody wants this fight because it will be lucrative. He picks his fights. When he feels that’s the fight for him, he’ll choose it. We’ll be waiting but we’ll continue fighting in the meantime.”