Conor McGregor withdraws from UFC 303 main event against Michael Chandler due to injury, Dana White announces

Conor McGregor’s nearly three-year absence from the UFC will be even longer, as the Irishman withdrew from his UFC 303 fight against Michael Chandler on Thursday.

UFC President Dana White announced McGregor’s departuresaying only that the Irishman had been injured.

The main event, scheduled for June 29, will be replaced by a light heavyweight title rematch between champion Alex Pereira and former champion Jiri Procházka. Pereira previously defeated Procházka via second-round TKO to win the chronically vacant belt at UFC 295 last November.

The co-main event between former light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill and Carlos Ulberg is also replaced by a fight between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes due to Hill’s injury. Ulberg will instead face Anthony Smith.

It was an overall rough day for the UFC, as Fight Night scheduled for the week leading up to 303 also saw its main event between Khamzat Chimaev and Robert Whittaker derailed due to a medical issue with Chimaev. The UFC announced earlier Thursday that Whittaker would face Ikram Aliskerov.

McGregor last fought at UFC 264 in July 2021, when he lost a trilogy bout to Dustin Poirier via TKO after breaking his tibia late in the first round. It’s been more than four years since he won a fight, and almost eight years since he won a title fight.

Conor McGregor’s withdrawal from UFC 303 has been rumored for over a week

Fans hoping for McGregor’s long-awaited return to the Octagon at UFC 303 first saw red flags when a press conference with Chandler scheduled for June 3 was abruptly postponed, with little notice. explanations from the promotion.

As the rumors – and a video of McGregor partying with his fiancée – began to circulate, McGregor posted on X that “a series of obstacles” had caused the postponement, but he insisted he always looked forward to fighting again.

Anyone who would have been encouraged by that explanation would have then been discouraged when veteran MMA journalist Ariel Helwani reported on Tuesday that the UFC was making probes for a McGregor replacement or an entirely new fight.

These concerns dissipated over the next week, with Chandler saying everything was fine in an interview and the UFC promoting the fight as usual on a Fight Night, but Helwani reported the following Tuesday that there was increased pessimism and the promotion was sending out feelers again. for a replacement.

Helwani reported shortly after McGregor’s withdrawal that the former champion had suffered an injury a day or two before this press conference, with McGregor’s camp hoping in vain that he could recover in time.

This latest development is particularly hard on Chandler, who has been more than patient while waiting for what would be by far the most lucrative fight of his career. Chandler last entered the Octagon in November 2022, when he also lost to Poirier. Months later, he and McGregor were set up for a fight as coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter,” but months passed without a real fight date. This period of time included the UFC’s controversial split with USADA over McGregor’s reinstatement in the testing pool.

The fight date was finally announced in April and no one was happier than Chandler.

McGregor stays busy, but not in the UFC

McGregor’s latest loss to Poirier was a low point in a career that was already on the decline, at least when it came to in-cage performances.

McGregor sat on the mat, with a badly broken leg, throwing insult after insult and flashing a gun at Poirier, who remains one of the most popular fighters in the UFC. McGregor had spent the entire lead-up to the fight making statements about Poirier’s family that clearly crossed the line, to the point where Poirier’s wife, Jolie, was seen turning him over while he was receiving treatment medical.

It was a moment of introspection for McGregor, who by that point had lost three of his last four fights, with two defeats to Poirier and one to the since-retired Khabib Nurmagomedov. Yes, he was (and still is) the biggest draw in MMA, but the former two-belt champion had never actually defended either belt and was stripped of both due to his inactivity.

So McGregor went through a slow recovery process and he certainly didn’t return to the UFC as soon as he could have. Instead, he focused on his considerable business portfolio and made his acting debut as an antagonist in Jake Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of “Road House.”

There were also disturbing accusations, not to mention anything.

And now that three-year path to the UFC is extended, and you can only wonder how much longer the promotion can play ball with a fighter it has championed and caved to at every turn.