Conor McGregor’s return at 2026’s International Fight Week ended in an inauspicious fashion with a fellow two-division MMA champion from Ireland weighing in on the UFC 329 fallout. Will Fleury is the combatant in question, and Oktagon’s heavyweight champion will be embarking on his first OKMMA light heavyweight title defense. This will transpire at Oktagon 92 on August 1st when Fleury clashes with ex-UFC vet Makhmud Muradov.
Fleury has previously spoken about how the perception of MMA in Ireland has been at a low point for years, with McGregor’s presence in the game casting this massive shadow over how people on the Emerald Isle see mixed martial arts as a whole. Offering up his thoughts on his combative compatriot’s short-lived return bout from earlier in the month as McGregor had his rematch with Max Holloway, Fleury said [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“Yeah, look, it’s kind of sad the way the whole thing went for everybody involved. I think; look like to most Irish people, Conor is MMA. Most Irish people aren’t very supportive of that at the moment and I can understand why. So it’s a weird place to be, being an Irish fighter right now. You obviously want to support other Irish fighters, but when you’re aware of some of the things that are going on around it, it’s just like this isn’t martial arts.”
Conor McGregor’s performance was “just sad”, per Fleury: “This isn’t what martial arts should be about”
Further expounding upon how he thinks Conor McGregor has strayed from those core tenets of martial arts representation, Fleury continued [via Bowks Talking Bouts],
“This isn’t what martial arts should be about. So, I’m in a position where I don’t want to see anyone fail, but like it was; I didn’t stay up to watch the fight. I got up the next morning and just saw the result online. It was just like, oh, okay, that’s a bit sad. You know, I would still like to have seen a good fight. I still would have liked to have seen a decent performance from everybody involved, but whatever. It’s just the whole thing is just sad to me, to be honest.”
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