Joe Rogan questions Conor McGregor’s UFC future after sexual assault civil trial defeat

Conor McGregor hasn’t competed in the UFC in roughly three-and-a-half years and the way things are going, Joe Rogan isn’t sure the promotion’s biggest star will ever step back into the octagon.

Rogan’s pessimistic outlook on McGregor’s fighting career comes after the former two-division champion lost a civil trial in which a woman, Nikita Hand, alleged that he raped her in a Dublin hotel room back in 2018. After nearly two weeks of court proceedings last month, which included testimony from McGregor, a jury found him liable for assault.

Although UFC CEO Dana White shrugged off the trial’s outcome having the ability to negatively impact McGregor’s career, what Rogan heard from McGregor during the trial has him questioning his future.

“I don’t know if Conor’s ever gonna fight again,” Rogan said on a recent episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast. “I don’t know the real details of that case. I know his version of it and her version of it and what played out in the court. But the reality is that guy’s partying, and he’s partying real hard. And he talked about it in the court case. He’s talking about (doing) cocaine.”

While Rogan wouldn’t go so far as to excuse McGregor’s alleged behavior in the case, as well as other transgressions through the years, he wonders how much traumatic brain injury has affected McGregor and whether or not he lives in a perpetual state of drug dependency.

“But I think there’s another issue to talk about, and that is that a lot of fighters, when they’ve sustained a significant amount of damage over the course of their career – and there’s no way to not get that,” Rogan said. “We’ve all seen Conor get beat up and knocked out. We’ve seen Conor’s sparring footage. He’s sparring pro boxers, he’s sparring elite fighters, you’re getting hit in the head a lot. And a lot of fighters, especially toward the end of their career, turn to drugs. And I think there’s probably a constant state of discomfort that they live in … you’re not supposed to get punched in the head a thousand times a year. It’s just not supposed to happen, and that’s the reality of consistent training.”

McGregor spent a good portion of 2024 training for his UFC comeback after he signed on to headline UFC 303 against Michael Chandler this past June. However, a broken pinky toe suffered in camp forced McGregor to withdraw roughly four weeks before the fight.

It’s unclear when or if McGregor will return to the cage, with White saying it wouldn’t happen until the later portion of 2025 if so. McGregor last week raised eyebrows when he tweeted that he’s agreed to face Logan Paul in an exhibition boxing match, although that claim has yet to be substantiated by White or the UFC.