Conor McGregor would be called a cheater by many but his UFC 329 return is “good for the casual fan”, per PFL star

Conor McGregor headlines UFC 329 this weekend, and a standout PFL fighter questions some of the activity that the Irishman got up to during his half-decade on the sidelines. The referenced combatant is Johnny Eblen, who has a rematch with Impa Kasanganay set for PFL Austin on July 18th for interim middleweight gold.

A prior PFL fight of Eblen’s received a particular bit of derision from McGregor as a fighting modality that the former two-division UFC champ doesn’t want to see in the sport. When asked for his thoughts on ‘The Notorious’ returning for a sequel clash with Max Holloway on July 11th, Eblen said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],

“I think it’s a little weird honestly. He’s been gone for so long. There’s been so many times he said he was going to come back, he was going to fight, and it didn’t come to fruition. But I think it’s good for the casual fan. I mean I’m going to watch it but I don’t know what I’m going to get. Obviously his whole road back to fighting is kind of weird. He left, got out of the USADA pool.”

“Well, now we don’t have USADA anymore. He did God knows what to get healthy again. Not even healthy again, to change himself to, I don’t know, become whatever the hell he is now. I don’t know what the hell he took, but now coming back to compete again, it’s a little weird. It’s like a gray area. A lot of people would call that cheating.”

Conor McGregor’s specific past comments toward Johnny Eblen

Conor McGregor scrutinized Eblen’s fight versus Fabian Edwards, and touching on the exact barbs uttered circa October 2024, McGregor stated [via Sports Illustrated],

“Act like you aren’t fed up and over this bulls*** all you want, but I won’t. It’s just become the norm nowadays. The product is suffering because of it. If it wasn’t for the brand name already well established, it would be well in the bin by now. It is in the bin in the mainstream. That’s a fact. There is no mainstream casual audience here. It needs calling out. Adjusting. A full review. MMA is better than what it has recently become [in my opinion].”