“No, he’s always in the gym,” Roddy told MMA Fighting’s Peter Carroll when asked if he was concerned that McGregor could be rusty when he returns to action.“It affects some people, ring rust.
“Or people always say, ‘Fighting in the UFC for the first time is a scary thing.’
“That affects some people, the nerves affect some people. And then some people embrace it, Conor embraces it.
“He’ll go in there and it’ll be like he never left.
“When he goes back into the Octagon it’ll just be familiar.
“He’ll go back in as the same person he is backstage, he’ll be the exact same person he is in the cage and anybody fighting him that man is in for a short night. Most definitely.”
A date for McGregor’s long-awaited return to the cage hasn’t been set yet, though the UFC brass are keen on having his proposed bout with Nurmagomedov headline one of the remaining two Las Vegas pay-per-view shows of the year.
Many in the MMA world would be surprised if the biggest fight in UFC history fails to come to fruition this year, including Nurmagomedov’s head coach Javier Mendez.
“I was told September or October. And then I was told they don’t know,” The American Kickboxing Academy head coach told Express Sport. “I’m at the ‘I don’t know’ stage. It’s like always.
”It’s not going to surprise me if it happens in September, October, November or December.
“What will surprise me is if it happens next year. That would be a surprise. That I’m not expecting.
“If he’s going to fight Conor, I’m expecting it this year.”