Conor McGregor will no longer fight Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29 in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White said Thursday night.
McGregor (22-6) was scheduled to headline the event but withdrew due to injury. It is the first time in McGregor's storied UFC career that he has pulled out of a fight for any reason.
The new main event is a light heavyweight title fight between Alex Pereira and Jiří Procházka, according to White.
White also announced two more new fights on the card: Diego Lopes will face Brian Ortega in the co-main event and Carlos Ulberg will now fight Anthony Smith in a light heavyweight bout after Jamahal Hill, who was scheduled to fight in the co-main event. event, he is out due to injury.
According to White, the sold-out event was on track to set a record for the UFC, with a live ticket of more than $20 million. The UFC has not announced whether the non-title welterweight fight between McGregor and Chandler will be rescheduled.
McGregor, 35, was set to return to competition for the first time since suffering a broken leg in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021. The former featherweight and lightweight champion has only fought four times since a successful boxing match against Floyd Mayweather. Jr. in 2017.
McGregor is 1-3 in those appearances, with two losses to Poirier and a submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a 2018 title fight.
The cancellation of the June fight is a disappointing chapter in what has become something of a saga between McGregor and Chandler. Chandler, a former Bellator MMA champion, first seriously called out McGregor in 2022. The UFC announced the two would face off on “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show in early 2023, which ran as scheduled that spring. However, the fight date was not finalized until earlier this year for several reasons.
The UFC's former drug testing partner, the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), stated that McGregor's situation led to the dissolution of its UFC program, as the promotion wanted to grant McGregor an exemption from the drug testing requirement. six months after his leg injury. . UFC chief commercial officer Hunter Campbell denied that claim and demanded a public apology.
The UFC has since partnered with several other agencies to run its drug program.
Ireland's McGregor promised in a tweet that his return to the Octagon this year would be the start of the “Greatest Comeback in Sports History.” The UFC scheduled a public press conference with McGregor and Chandler on June 3 at Dublin's 3Arena, but canceled the event just 12 hours before the gates opened, sparking speculation about the status of the fight.
Chandler, 38, has not fought since a back-and-forth loss to Poirier at UFC 281 in November 2022. He has only expressed passing interest in potential fights against Nate Diaz, who is currently not signed with the UFC or the champion from BMF. Max Holloway.
