{"id":283085,"date":"2018-08-17T06:32:12","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T13:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=283085"},"modified":"2018-08-17T06:32:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-17T13:32:12","slug":"james-gallagher-conor-mcgregor-is-better-than-ever-ahead-of-ufc-229-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/conor-mcgregor\/james-gallagher-conor-mcgregor-is-better-than-ever-ahead-of-ufc-229-return\/","title":{"rendered":"James Gallagher: Conor McGregor is “better than ever” ahead of UFC 229 return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bellator bantamweight contender James Gallagher, one of Conor McGregor’s training partners at SBG Ireland, says the Irish MMA superstar is looking good as he prepares for his UFC 229 showdown with UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. In fact, Gallagher claims McGregor is looking better than ever.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c[Conor] looks better than ever,\u201d Gallagher told MMA Fighting<\/a>‘s Peter Carroll this week.\u00a0\u201cHe\u2019s got that fire back inside of him. When you\u2019re on the top of the world like he\u2019s been for so long, you need to chill out for a little bit to get that hunger back. It\u2019s hard to keep that hunger when you have everything that you\u2019ve ever wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he\u2019s been away, Khabib has been creating some hype and getting himself in a position to fight Conor,” Gallagher continued. “There are a lot of people who see Khabib as a serious threat, so I think that\u2019s given Conor a push to step up and say, \u2018Nah, mate, I\u2019m the champ around here \u2014 you\u2019re not on my level.\u2019 I think Conor\u2019s going to show Khabib who\u2019s boss and put him back in his box.\u201d<\/p>\n

As James Gallagher implies, Conor McGregor is fabulously wealthy, and probably doesn’t\u00a0need\u00a0<\/em> to fight again. Yet Gallagher believes McGregor is motivated by the challenge of handing Khabib Nurmagomedov his first loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cConor could wipe his ass every morning with a \u20ac500 note and it would be just a drop in the ocean for him, so the real part of this he\u2019s interested in is the challenge,” he explained. “You can buy all the cars and everything else, but you can\u2019t buy a challenge like this. The thrill of competition is what is driving him.”<\/p>\n

\u201cConor has beaten everyone the UFC have put in front of him. He climbed to the top of a division and he won a belt, then he won another belt\u2026he loves a challenge. People are saying that Khabib is the guy now and I know that Conor is thinking, \u2018I\u2019m going to show all of these people again\u2019. He\u2019s got a fire inside of him to show everyone who is the boss.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you think Conor McGregor will look in his long-awaited return to the cage?<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 8\/17\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bellator bantamweight contender James Gallagher, one of Conor McGregor’s training partners at SBG Ireland, says the Irish MMA superstar is looking good as he prepares for his UFC 229 showdown with UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. In fact, Gallagher claims McGregor is looking better than ever. \u201c[Conor] looks better than ever,\u201d Gallagher told MMA Fighting‘s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":282825,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10089],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nJames Gallagher: Conor McGregor is "better than ever" ahead of UFC 229 return | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"James Gallagher, a training partner of Conor McGregor, says the UFC superstar is training with renewed focus for his UFC 229 fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/conor-mcgregor\/james-gallagher-conor-mcgregor-is-better-than-ever-ahead-of-ufc-229-return\/\" \/>\n<meta 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