Conor McGregor only has two fights left on his UFC deal, and according to Anthony Smith, the promotion isn’t giving him an easy exit.
The UFC legend says the company always uses a specific playbook whenever a massive star decides to head toward free agency, and he thinks McGregor is getting that exact treatment right now.
This all sets the stage for McGregor’s long-awaited comeback. At 37 years old and five years after breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, he is finally returning this Saturday to fight Max Holloway at UFC 329. After that, he only has one single fight left on his contract.
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The UFC already has that final bout booked for April 2027, forcing McGregor to wait almost a year just to finish out his deal. And that is something giving Smith a bad feeling.
Anthony Smith Accuses UFC of Devaluing Conor McGregor Before Free Agency
As a former UFC light heavyweight title challenger and a current desk analyst for the promotion, Smith knows exactly how the company operates behind closed doors. He didn’t hold back on the “Submission Radio” podcast when talking about how the UFC handles fighters near the end of their contracts.
Smith admitted, “I wasn’t going to go there, but if he doesn’t resign, or they’re suspecting he’s not going to resign… They’re going to send him off valueless. That’s just the — game, bro.”
Podcast host Denis Shkuratov said the proof is already out there. Before this Max Holloway fight got booked, the UFC actually tried to put McGregor in the cage with Carlos Prates, a terrifying, rising fighter at 170 pounds.
Shkuratov added, “I was like, yep, they’re trying to basically kill the guy before he gets to Netflix, right? They’re trying to devalue him as much as possible.”
Carlos Prates Situation Fuels Suspicion Around Conor McGregor’s Contract
McGregor himself later confirmed that the rumors about Prates were true. He told Ariel Helwani that he verbally accepted the matchup right away and waited for the paperwork, but it never came his way.
“They mentioned Carlos Prates for my return, I said, ‘Yeah, no problem. Send the contract.’ So I’m saying yes for about two weeks, but no contract came,” McGregor said. He thinks the UFC only threw that name at him to scare him out of the 170-pound division and force him back down to lightweight.
For his part, Prates said the UFC never gave him an official contract either, though he knew McGregor had passed on the fight. He is a strong knockout artist who is fresh off a brutal stoppage win over former champ Jack Della Maddalena. Facing such a fighter is an incredibly bad matchup for anyone coming off a five-year layoff. Instead, the UFC went with the Max Holloway rematch, a fight McGregor is way more comfortable with.
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Whether the promotion is just trying to squeeze the last bit of value out of McGregor before he leaves, or actively trying to protect their roster from him cashing out in free agency, the pattern is exactly what Anthony Smith described. McGregor gets Holloway first, but whatever the UFC makes him do for his final fight will show their true colors.
