Conor McGregor says he's back, foe's trainer calls him 'prostitute'

Conor McGregor is back. Or so he says.

Taking to Instagram on Thursday afternoon, the mercurial UFC superstar even said that he was willing to fight featherweight Frankie Edgar at UFC 222 on short notice only for the UFC to put the kibosh on things.

“I am fighting again. Period,” McGregor wrote. “I am the best at this. I put my name forward to step in at UFC 222 to face Frankie Edgar when Max Holloway pulled out, but I was told there wasn’t enough time to generate the money that the UFC would need.

“I was excited about bouncing in last minute and taking out the final featherweight, without all the rest of the stuff that comes with this game. Please respect the insane amount of work outside the fight game that I have put in.”

McGregor’s claim plays perfectly into the reputation he earned early in his career for fighting anyone at any time and at any place. However, McGregor hasn’t been that fighter for years. He hasn’t fought in the UFC since November 2016 and hasn’t fought as a featherweight since November 2015.

Edgar’s own manager immediately tore into McGregor’s latest antics.

“He’s full a s—. He’s a liar. He should have fought Frankie two years ago,” Ali Abdelaziz told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto moments after McGregor posted.

Since boxing Floyd Mayweather in the squared circle in August 2017, McGregor’s future has been a total mystery. He’s been linked to any number of fights including a Mayweather rematch — in either boxing or MMA — a third fight with nemesis Nate Diaz, or a lightweight title fight with interim champion Tony Ferguson.

At no point was McGregor versus Edgar ever brought up even though UFC 222 has been snake-bitten from the instant it was announced. Originally, Edgar was supposed to fight Holloway for the Hawaiian’s featherweight title only for Holloway to drop out with an injury. Edgar eventually got a fight with Brian Ortega. However, the event still lacked a headliner. All sorts of options were considered until a deal was finally struck for women’s featherweight champion Cris “Cyborg” Justino to fight Yana Kunitskaya, a fighter so unknown that UFC president Dana White struggled to pronounce her name when he announced the fight.

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