Will Fleury believes his SBG Ireland gymmate Conor McGregor could return to the UFC octagon by the end of this year.
McGregor is on the sidelines after suffering a hand injury that required a surgery, but rumours persist that he will return in 2019, and Fleury, who makes his US debut at Bellator 224 on July 12th against Antonio Jones, said that while he would understand the former two-weight world champ retiring, he sees him fighting within the next six months.
"I can't see why he would," Fleury explained.
"But I'd be surprised if he didn't.
"He's achieved everything he set out to achieve and he hit it out of the park almost right away, so I can imagine him thinking 'what do I do now?'
"I can see why the motivation wouldn't be the same, but with the way the Khabib fight went, there's probably a bit of a thing where he won't want that to be his legacy.
"I would be surprised if we didn't see him come back."
McGregor has been angling for a rematch of his last UFC bout, a fourth round submission defeat to Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
And Fleury imagines that would be his next fight, should he return at all.
"It's Conor McGregor, he could fight Khabib by the end of this year, and then if he wins that it's a whole new situation again, things change very quickly in the fight game.
"Look where he was this time and last year and where he is now, a year ago he was one of the greatest martial artists we'd ever seen, now they talk about him like he's done.
"The world is his oyster no matter what he does, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him in there by the end of the year."
