{"id":326966,"date":"2019-10-02T10:11:57","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T17:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=326966"},"modified":"2019-10-02T10:11:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-02T17:11:57","slug":"makwan-amirkhani-says-teammate-conor-mcgregor-is-building-himself-up-for-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/makwan-amirkhani-says-teammate-conor-mcgregor-is-building-himself-up-for-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Makwan Amirkhani says teammate Conor McGregor is &#8216;building himself up&#8217; for return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Conor McGregor has not fought since he was defeated by Khabib Nurmagomedov in late 2018. McGregor&#8217;s teammate Makwan Amirkhani believes that could soon change.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/2019\/09\/makwan-amirkhani-conor-mcgregor-will-be-another-person-upon-octagon-return\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MMA Junkie<\/a> after last weekend&#8217;s Bellator 227 card in Dublin, Amirkhani gave his take on McGregor&#8217;s prolonged absence. He believes McGregor&#8217;s appetite for competition will eventually drive him back to the cage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think in the end, Conor knows that it\u2019s not the money that makes us athletes happy\u201d, he said (h\/t <a href=\"https:\/\/apmma.net\/makwan-amirkhani-believes-teammate-conor-mcgregor-will-be-a-different-person-upon-return\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">APMMA.net<\/a>). \u201cIt\u2019s that we can go there and perform, and I think he\u2019s hungry for that. He knows that\u2019s the thing that makes his life happier, and that\u2019s the thing that he loves. So I believe truly that he will get back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, Amirkhani believes McGregor is doing what he needs to do to build himself back up after a fairly chaotic year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a lot (that) his mind is on a whole other level,\u201d he said of McGregor. \u201cThere have been a few steps backwards, but we all make mistakes and we all learn from them. And I think when he gets back (to fighting) he will be another person.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s been in the gym and he\u2019s been working by himself a lot and I think he\u2019s building himself up. I believe in the beginning of next year, that\u2019s the time that Conor will step up \u2013 January or February.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Makwan Amirkhani is gearing up or a UFC 244 fight with Shane Burgos. In this fight, he&#8217;ll look to improve his current win-streak to three-straight.<\/p>\n<p>While Conor McGregor doesn&#8217;t have a fight booked, he&#8217;s recently been linked to a potential showdown with Justin Gaethje. He&#8217;s also been <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/conor-mcgregor-responds-to-dustin-poirier\/\">called out<\/a> by recent lightweight title challenger Dustin Poirier.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think of these comments from Makwan Amirkhani? Is Conor McGregor gearing up for a comeback?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 10\/2\/2019.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Conor McGregor has not fought since he was defeated by Khabib Nurmagomedov in late 2018. McGregor&#8217;s teammate Makwan Amirkhani believes that could soon change. Speaking to MMA Junkie after last weekend&#8217;s Bellator 227 card in Dublin, Amirkhani gave his take on McGregor&#8217;s prolonged absence. He believes McGregor&#8217;s appetite for competition will eventually drive him back [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":326971,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10089,10384,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Makwan Amirkhani says teammate Conor McGregor is &#039;building himself up&#039; for return | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Makwan Amirkhani says his teammate Conor McGregor is in the process of building himself back up for his return to the Octagon.\" \/>\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\/ufc\/makwan-amirkhani-says-teammate-conor-mcgregor-is-building-himself-up-for-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Makwan Amirkhani says teammate Conor McGregor is &#039;building himself up&#039; for return | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Makwan Amirkhani says his teammate Conor McGregor is in the process of building himself back up for his return to the Octagon.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/makwan-amirkhani-says-teammate-conor-mcgregor-is-building-himself-up-for-return\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-02T17:11:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Conor-McGregor-53.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/makwan-amirkhani-says-teammate-conor-mcgregor-is-building-himself-up-for-return\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/makwan-amirkhani-says-teammate-conor-mcgregor-is-building-himself-up-for-return\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Makwan Amirkhani says teammate Conor McGregor is &#8216;building himself up&#8217; 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