Conor McGregor is anything but an owner in name only when it comes to his investment in BKFC.

The former two-division UFC champion—who became a part owner in BKFC back in April—is so serious about his passion for bare-knuckle fighting that he’s promising to eventually take the gloves off and set foot in the ring for a fight himself. With only two fights remaining on his current UFC contract and the chance to act as his own promoter, BKFC president and founder David Feldman is taking McGregor’s declaration seriously.

“Unless he’s the best salesman in the world, the talks that we’ve had it’s like ‘I’m fighting here,’” Feldman told MMA Fighting. “I’m like yeah, OK. He [said] ‘I’m fighting here.’

“I go, ‘Why wouldn’t you fight here?’ Because you have equity in the company and if you fight here, you’ll probably make more money than anywhere else in the world because of what it’s going to do for the company. So I truly believe what you said — I think 100 percent he fights here.”

The UFC recently announced that Michael Chandler would fight Charles Oliveira in November after he spent nearly two years waiting for a matchup against McGregor, which prompted the Irish superstar to suggest a co-promotion with BKFC so he could get back in action sooner rather than later.

While there’s no doubting McGregor’s immense drawing power and the influence he holds with UFC, Feldman knows there’s no chance UFC would ever co-promote with him but it’s not because there isn’t mutual respect between the promotions.

“The UFC doesn’t need us,” Feldman said. “They don’t need us. We need to [co-promote] with them, they don’t need to [co-promote] with us, which would be phenomenal — they’re not going to do it. If they do Conor McGregor with anything, he don’t need to [co-promote] with us.”

That means McGregor would need to leave UFC to fight for BKFC, but Feldman has stopped doubting his new business partner after seeing his commitment over these past few months.

McGregor could have easily injected some cash into BKFC, called himself a co-owner and then faded into the background after grabbing a few headlines. Feldman says that interpretations of McGregor’s involvement couldn’t be further from the truth.

“He’s been unbelievable,” Feldman said about McGregor. “He’s really been a partner so far. Blew away my expectations. Doing the interviews, he did the post-fight press conference, he’s meeting the guys. He’s going over and hugging the fighters and telling them, ‘Come on let’s do this!’ He’s sitting there ringside cheering for them. He’s posting all the time about it. He’s all in.

“We had a great talk this weekend, it was just me and him talking and I said to him ‘I don’t know if you really believe me, but this is going to be the biggest thing in the world in a few years, there’s nothing that’s going to be bigger than this, trust me.’ He goes, ‘It’s going to be two years.’”

Considering that just about everything McGregor touches turns to gold, it’s tough to imagine he won’t find a way to build BKFC into a powerhouse that will go toe-to-toe with just about any other combat sports organization out there.

Feldman is realistic when it comes to size and scale because he knows the UFC is a promotional juggernaut that won’t be toppled. Still, he admits that the exponential growth of BKFC over these past few years has blown away even his biggest expectations and he expects McGregor to help them grow even bigger in the future.

“[Conor] sees the vision,” Feldman said. “Are we ever going to be the biggest combat sport in the world? Probably not honestly but we’re definitely going to be one of the biggest. Absolutely. The numbers just keep going up.”

Chael Sonnen makes a case for Sean O’Malley to get an immediate title rematch.

O’Malley (18-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) lost his bantamweight title to Merab Dvalishvili (18-4 MMA, 11-2 UFC) by unanimous decision in the UFC 306 main event at Sphere in Las Vegas.

Dvalishvili has two contenders in Umar Nurmagomedov and Deiveson Figueiredo vying for a title shot, but Sonnen argues that O’Malley is worthy of a rematch.

He explains the logic behind his argument, pointing to other stars that have gotten that treatment.

“The very first option is the champion that drops the belt gets a rematch for his belt,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “It was a respect that was shown to every single great champion. And by great champion, I’m talking about champions that could also move the needle. All of them were offered rematches, from Conor (McGregor) on down – more recently, Israel Adesanya. Right into it, I’m sharing with you: All the greats except Sean.”

Although it was widely considered a dominant win for Dvalishvili, O’Malley is convinced he won the fight. Upon rewatching the bout, Sonnen sees where O’Malley is coming from.

“Motivation could largely be based upon opportunities – of which I didn’t see any add, I only saw him taken away,” Sonnen said. “I’m just sharing – that is what I saw. But now you’ve got Merab, you’ve got Nurmagomedov, and you’ve got Figueiredo, and they can’t seem to quite figure it out.

“Well, there’s also a final option that should’ve come in front of all of them which is if there’s controversy, we look at a rematch. There’s controversy, go see Rounds 1, 3 and 5. Watch that without commentating. Come back and tell me you don’t see controversy.”

Alex Pereira will have ex-opponent Sean Strickland in his camp for his UFC 307 title defense versus Khalil Rountree, he revealed Sunday on his YouTube channel.

“Poatan,” who knocked out Strickland back in 2022 to earn a shot at the middleweight belt before later becoming friends with the Las Vegas-based fighter, moved his camp to the altitude of Salt Lake City to prepare for UFC 307, which takes place in the capital of Utah on Oct. 5.

“The thing about the altitude is that it’s hard [to train],” Pereira said. “We did this once when I fought [Jan] Blachowicz. We did it for two weeks then, and three weeks now. I think it’s going to be much better.”

Pereira defeated Blachowicz via decision in his first light heavyweight bout inside the octagon, also at SLC’s Vivint Arena, and now returns as 205-pound champion to face Rountree. The challenger earned a shot at gold following five straight wins, including four knockouts.

“We have a great team here,” said Pereira, who usually trains at Glover Teixeira’s team in Danbury, Conn. “We have Glover, Plinio [Cruz], Yousri [Belgaroui], ‘Cesinha’ [Cesar Almeida]. Sean Strickland is also coming next week to train with us here. I’m very happy with this preparation.”

Pereira vs. Rountree serves as the main event for UFC 307, with bantamweight champion Raquel Pennington defending her throne versus Julianna Peña in the co-main event slot.

Meanwhile, Strickland is campaigning for a rematch with UFC middleweight champion Dricus du Plessis next, but the company has yet to make an announcement on who will get the shot at 185 pounds.

Dan Hooker thinks Conor McGregor has more to gain from fighting him than Michael Chandler.

McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) was slated to return against Chandler (23-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC), but after he withdrew from their UFC 303 booking in June, Chandler decided to move on. He runs things back with Charles Oliveira in the UFC 309 co-main event Nov. 16 in New York.

Chandler booking another fight left McGregor confused, as “The Notorious” still sees Chandler as a possibility for his return fight.  However, Hooker (24-12 MMA, 14-8 UFC) thinks Chandler no longer make sense for McGregor. “The Hangman” entered the UFC’s top five lightweight rankings with a win over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305.

“He’s without a fight,” Hooker told Submission Radio on McGregor. “I know Conor’s hungry to fight, and fight someone that he can get something from and makes a lot of sense. That’s why I feel like Chandler kind of sitting there and waiting, and not staying active, you kind of lose. What does he get out of beating Chandler? He knocks out Michael Chandler in the first round, Conor McGregor doesn’t even get in that top five off of that performance.”

Hooker is confused to see Chandler run things back with Oliveira (34-10 MMA, 22-10 UFC). He understands Chandler’s motivation to avenge his 2021 title loss, but doesn’t see much incentive for Oliveira.

He teased big news coming up for himself, too.

“I get why they kind of put that fight together,” Hooker said. “That’s a big fight for the division. But I don’t know – it’s a weird fight. I was kind of trying to justify the fight, but no, it’s just a weird fight.Yeah, that might be just because I might have something up my sleeve, as well Might have a little something in the fire there, but it must be good if I’m saying nothing.

“I get why Chandler would want the fight. Obviously, if he gets by Oliveira, the UFC has kind of promised him a title shot, I’m sure of it. I don’t know too much about what Charles will get out of it. At our level, when you’re at the top five, top six in the division, it’s any man’s day. All of these fights are a bit of a coin flip.”