Las Vegas — No, Michael Chandler will not be fighting Conor McGregor next. Instead, he’s taking a detour to New York City, facing Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.
That doesn’t mean the McGregor fight won’t happen, however. And the sport’s biggest name will still be on Chandler’s mind.
“Oh I’m still going to be thinking about Conor McGregor. As I asserted at the very beginning, Conor McGregor’s still not off the hook,” Chandler (23-8) told media outlets including Cageside Press backstage at The Sphere on Saturday, speaking to the press directly for the first time since news of his rematch with Oliveira broke.
“Conor McGregor’s road back to the UFC still goes through Nashville, Tennessee and Michael Chandler. We must finish TUF 31. It has to happen. We’re at the same weight class. It was too long of a build-up for it not to happen.”
Chandler has known for four weeks now that he would be fighting Charles Oliveira next, but “I’m a consummate professional. So nothing is ever going to leak, my lips are sealed,” he stated. The 38-year old has been on the sidelines since 2022, waiting for the McGregor fight to happen. The pair coached opposite one another on The Ultimate Fighter 31 last year, then had a date announced for UFC 303.
That date fell through when McGregor pulled out because of a broken toe. His return is still up in the air.
“It was time for me to make a pivot, only because of the timeline. And you guys can ask Dana [White, UFC CEO and President] how long the timeline was going to be before Conor comes back. But it was too long for me. I’m not waiting around. We had a fight booked [June] 29, he pulls out of the fight, immediately we started looking at other options.”
Among those options was Max Holloway.
“I almost was going to fight tonight, here. It was offered to Max,” Chandler revealed. “I respect Max because Max is a champion, Max is going to go beat Ilia Topuria I believe. Other options were on the table, but here we are, now I’m fighting Charles. Number one contender fight, and I’ve always wanted to chase the title, that’s always been my goal. I beat Charles, and then if Conor can get his house in order finally, he and I can finish that, if not I’ll go beat Islam [Makhachev].”
Asked about what he believes the hold-up with McGregor, who last fought in 2021, was, Chandler joked “I know what the delay is, but I can’t tell you guys. No, not really. Maybe.”
In reality, Chandler admits that “There’s a difference between booking Conor McGregor for a fight, and booking every single person here in Las Vegas tonight. Booking me, booking everybody else in the entire sport, it’s just different. There’s different things to consider, there’s different dates to be thrown out. There’s very few limited dates that you can book Conor McGregor on, there’s different venues that you can book Conor McGregor on, there’s different locations that you can book Conor McGregor on.”
“It’s bigger, and there’s a lot more layers. So I can’t speak to why it’s not happening, but either way, I love the fight against Conor, I will fight Conor in 2025, but right now we’re going to pivot and beat Charles.”
Watch the full appearance by Michael Chandler at UFC 306 above.
