One of the best-kept secrets by Dana White and the UFC has always been Conor McGregor‘s return date to the octagon.
Since breaking his leg at UFC 264 in the fight with Dustin Poirier, the Irishman has completed three years in the dry dock, despite Ilia Topuria‘s attempts to get him out of it with the temptation of the Santiago Bernabeu.
His return, currently scheduled for the end of the year, will be against Michael Chandler and, although the fight was expected to take place at The Sphere in Las Vegas on September 14, it looks like that is not going to be the case.
The two were scheduled to fight at UFC 303, until McGregor announced his toe injury, canceling the fight until further notice.
Since then we’ve seen him in Dublin during a Bellator event, supporting training partner Sinead Kavanagh who was facing Arlene Blencowe. Precisely in Dublin, that day, was where he announced that he would be 100% for the fight with Chandler.
When will McGregor return?
Mystic Mac himself commented that he would be ready to return in August although Dana White stopped him by saying that by then the UFC’s lineups are all complete: “August and September are months in which the events have already been completed and I’m not going to do anything until I know that Conor is really healthy. I’m not even going to talk about it.”
For his part, journalist Ariel Helwani did give clues about the date on which the clash could take place: “At this point, if I have to bet money on the date of Conor vs. Chandler; it’s not news, but my opinion, is that it will be in December, the way everything is developing. I don’t think they’re going to create a date for them, let alone fight in The Sphere, it’s too expensive. Las Vegas will be the most likely scenario for Sean O’Malley versus Merab Dvalishvili.”
Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler’s Rivalry
The rivalry between Chandler and McGregor has yet to take off. Both have been correct in their statements until Chandler‘s post on X when he saw McGregor in Bellator:
“Speaking of going to events…glad you finally made it to the 3Arena, where the press conference was supposed to be on June 3. Nice shoes. Who’s the Bellator ‘tick’ now?”
That last sentence is dedicated to McGregor after the incident the two had in the octagon during The Ultimate Fighter, when McGregor referred to Chandler as a “little Bellator tick” with two crying emojis.