Conor McGregor has confirmed his intention to make a return to the UFC by fighting Michael Chandler on June 29th in Las Vegas. The date of the fight and, indeed, the fight itself have not been confirmed by the UFC publicly, so who knows if this is indeed how the Dubliner will return to the octagon.
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McGregor has not fought since suffering the second of two back-to-back losses to Dustin Poirier in July 2021 in Las Vegas, which came just six months after a TKO at the hands of the Diamond in Abu Dhabi.
Conor McGregor made his announcement via X, formerly known as Twitter, stating,
“I’d like to announce the return date for myself, ‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor,”
“The greatest comeback of all time will take place in Las Vegas, International Fight Week of June 29. The opponent, Michael Chandler — and the weight, Mr. Chandler, 185 pounds.”
37-year-old Chandler responded to the announcement by saying,
“Here we go, this is the fight I’ve been training for. Any weight — 155, 170, 185 pounds — is good with me.”
On calling the fight as a Middleweight clash, Chandler was seemingly unconcerned, adding,
“In his mind, he can’t fight at 170 [pounds] because I called him out at 170,”
“He had to say 185. … He always wants to establish dominance, to make people think that I am less than him, and that’s fine. I’ll take that all day long because I’m confident in myself, and I don’t have an ego.”
“I have no problem with what people say. I have no problem with people’s opinions. Everybody’s got an opinion, and who cares? … I’ll take that ‘back seat’ to him the entire time, and if he thinks he’s taking a fight against a lesser man, then so be it. He’ll find out on June 29.”
“Conor’s skill set, I don’t think it’s where it used to be. I don’t think Conor is as scary as he used to be back in those days.” Chandler added.
Chandler’s last fight was also a loss to Dustin Poirier, coming in UFC 281 in November 2022 in New York City. That defeat took Chandler’s record to 23-8 versus that of his 35-year-old opponent, 22-6.
The fight itself is by no means set in stone, not least because McGregor still needs to secure the clearance to compete from the USADA (United States Anti-Doping Agency), though this is less of an obstacle now that the UFC has partnered with a new collection agency, Drug-Free Sport International, though no doubt they would still require the Irishman to jump through the relevant hoops before he can once again fight professionally.