Joe Rogan unsure if Conor McGregor will return to UFC following recent sexual assault verdict: “He likes coke”

Joe Rogan is uncertain if we’ll ever see UFC star Conor McGregor back in the Octagon.

On Nov. 22, a jury in Dublin, Ireland’s High Court ruled McGregor was civically liable for sexually assaulting a woman named Nikita Hand in local hotel room in 2018. The court ordered the former two-division UFC champion to pay just shy of $260,000 in damages, and the fallout continued from there, as many of his corporate partners — including his beloved Proper No. 12 whiskey — cut ties with him.

During the court proceedings, McGregor admitted to using cocaine, confirming widespread suspicions about his drug habits. That behaviour is the main reason Rogan doubts the Irishman will ever fight in the UFC again.

“I don’t know if Conor’s ever going to fight again,” the UFC commentator said on a recent episode of his popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast, adding that he doesn’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 said.  “He was talking about cocaine. That was the whole thing: [he said] ‘we were doing cocaine, we were f**king.'”

“He likes coke,” he added bluntly.

Rogan: McGregor has gotten “hit in the head a lot”

Rogan then admitted that he was not surprised to learn McGregor has dabbled in drug-use. In fact, he considers drug-use a common problem for fighters in the twilight of their careers.

“We’ve all seen Conor get beat up and knocked out,” he said. “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. A lot of fighters, especially toward the ends of their careers, turn to drugs.”

“There’s probably a constant state of discomfort that they live in where their dopamine levels are all f**ked up, their cortisol levels are f**ked up. You’re not supposed to get punched in the head 1000 times a year. It’s just not supposed to happen, and that’s the reality of consistent training.”

Conor McGregor has not fought since 2021, when he suffered a broken ankle in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier. He was slated to return to action against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in June, but withdrew from the fight with a toe injury.