The wait is over.
Conor McGregor will make his long-anticipated return to the octagon to fight Michael Chandler in June for UFC 303, Dana White announced Saturday in Las Vegas.
“June 29th, Conor versus Chandler. Five rounds, 170 lbs,” White told reporters after Saturday’s UFC 300.
“It’s not that we’ve been working on it for ages,” White said in response to a question on why the long-rumored fight took some time to come to fruition. “You know, there’s all kinds of things that go on behind the scenes and, you know, it’s all about timing. Chandler’s been ready but Conor hasn’t been ready. Conor and I, we talked about this at one of the press conferences recently, he had a lot of obligations that he had to deal with,” White said. (RELATED: ‘A Disgrace’: Conor McGregor Rips Into World Leader Over Response To Hamas Hostage Release)
McGregor has been busy launching a career in film, most recently starring alongside Jake Gyllenhaal in Amazon Studios’ remake of a classic film, “Road House.”
McGregor last fought in 2021, losing by TKO to Dustin Poirier in a fight which broke his tibia and fibula, injuries White alluded to in his announcement.
“What you don’t want him doing is accepting a fight when he’s got a ton of obligations and he can’t train 100 percent for a fight,” White claimed. “Obviously he suffered that traumatic leg injury in his last fight and he has said that when he comes back it’ll be the greatest comeback in sporting history. If he was to come back and win that fight it would be one of the best comebacks considering the injury he suffered.”
King Conor has only fought four times since 2020 — one was an exhibition boxing match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. He should be well-recovered from his 2021 leg break, but he’ll likely have a lot of rust to shake off, too. Regardless, I couldn’t be more excited to see Ireland’s very own come back to the octagon.