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Conor McGregor to return to action in boxing bout – charity wheelchair boxing bout

Conor McGregor could return to boxing after his defeat to Dustin Poirier in UFC 264 – wheelchair boxing that is.

‘The Notorious’ looks set to populate Paddy Barnes undercard as the three-time Olympian competes against Stevo Timothy at the Clayton Hotel Galway on September 11.

The former Crumlin amateur previously called out impressionist Al Foran after it was confirmed he would act as the co-main event but has yet to be officially confirmed on the charity card.

However, not long after he suffered defeat and serious injury in UFC 264 he was declaring his intentions to button the impressionist’s lips.

Speaking with Laura Sanko for W2W, his coach John Kavanagh revealed that not long after his UFC reverse, McGregor was declaring he wanted to participate in the wheelchair boxing match. The revered MMA coach said:

“It wasn’t long after that he was making some jokes. There’s this charity boxing match going on back home in Ireland. Have you heard about it? So the main event is a guy who was in a wheelchair and he’s having a wheelchair boxing fight with an ex-Olympian Paddy Barnes, an amazing boxer.

“Now the co-main event was Conor. Conor had volunteered to be the co-main event where he was gonna box there’s a guy called Al Foran who is an impressionist. You might have seen him do some of Conor’s impressions. So Conor’s gonna fight Conor in the co-main event.”

After breaking his left tibia in the main event of UFC 264, Conor McGregor will have to spend some time in a wheelchair. And according to Kavanagh, McGregor jokingly pointed out that he now has the perfect reason to participate in the charity event.

“But anyway in the heat of all this he just turned and [said], ‘You know, I’m gonna do the wheelchair boxing fight now’ because he’s off his feet for a while. He made a joke about that,” said Kavanagh.

If ‘The Notorious’ does indeed appear it would be a massive boost for the charity fight night and the potential funds they could raise. The Dubliner has already donated 10,000 euro to the cause, helping out the Irish Wheelchair Asociation in the process.

Irish boxing funnyman Barnes has agreed to fight the professional comedian.

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The three-time Olympian, two-time Olympic medalist and profesinal world title challenger will have to get in a wheelchair to face his latest rival.

Speaking only Sir Stevo Timothy explained:

“Many people out there may not realise is that I have incomplete paraplegia so I use a wheelchair or crutches to get around. Last year I decided to cycle a bike 5km and ended up raising over 63,000 euros for the Irish Wheelchair Association and had support from the likes of Tyson Fury, Gary Lineker, Freddie Flintoff, Paul McGrath, Dawn French and Joey Barton.

“This year I have decided to have a wheelchair boxing match with Belfast Olympic Winner Paddy Barnes. The rationale is to normalise wheelchair sports and to show those with disabilities that you can achieve anything you set your mind to, but also to get Paddy into a wheelchair to show able bodied people how difficult wheelchair life can be. We will also try to raise as much as possible for the Irish Wheelchair Association and Paddy’s choice (yet to decide)We would love your support in this endeavour and would hope that you would help to get the word out so that we can fully utilise this opportunity.”

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