Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler Canceled? Shocking Development Makes Fans Assume the Worst
Conor McGregor’s highly anticipated return to the octagon may be in jeopardy.
McGregor is set to take on UFC star Michael Chandler in the main event at UFC 303 on June 29.
The fighters were supposed to take part in a news conference in Dublin on Monday to promote the highly anticipated fight, but ESPN reported on Monday that the press conference was postponed without explanation.
McGregor posted on X that the cancellation was “due to a series of obstacles outside of our control.”
To make matters worse, OutKick reported on Tuesday that ESPN appeared to remove some of its promotional content for UFC 303 from its website. The outlet claimed there were also reports of error messages when fans tried to pre-order the fight, although they could not confirm that the outages occurred.
UFC 303 is still listed on ESPN’s MMA schedule for June.
Breaking: ESPN has removed ads on their website and cable TV for Conor McGregor’s return at UFC 303 vs Michael Chandler.
Yesterday McGregor cancelled a huge press conference in Ireland with speculation overnight of bad news for the promotion and fans.
Thoughts 💭 👇#UFC… pic.twitter.com/316i7occrO
— MMA UNCENSORED (@MMAUNCENSORED1) June 4, 2024
The UFC also reportedly made two of McGregor’s previous fights, his second with Nate Diaz and his lightweight championship bout against Eddie Alvarez, private on its YouTube channel. The UFC typically promotes its upcoming events by releasing previous bouts involving fighters in the upcoming event on YouTube, and according to one X account, these fights had been made public only a few days before.
The UFC has privated the McGregor vs Alvarez and McGregor vs Diaz 2 full fight videos they posted just a few days back 🤔#UFC #MMA #UFC303 pic.twitter.com/m3U622kKQa
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 4, 2024
Chandler added fuel to the fire that the event was cancelled with a cryptic Instagram post on Tuesday, which raised more questions surrounding the mega fight.
View this post on Instagram
“If you’re looking for me, I’ll be out in Tennessee. No way out of the life we chose…” the post began. Chandler being in Tennessee indicates he has left his training camp for the upcoming fight.
MMA insider Ariel Helwani also reported on Tuesday that the UFC sent “feelers” out to see if there were any fighters willing to step in either as a replacement fighter or as part of completely new main event that doesn’t involve McGregor or Chandler.
However, Helwani offered fans some hope on his show, “The MMA Hour,” that, as of Wednesday, “There is great positivity that the fight is going forward.”
“The vibes could not be any more different than Sunday and Monday,” Helwani said. “The positivity could not be any greater. … It’s so much higher now, and there is great optimism that all systems are a go.”
Hopefully, Helwani’s optimism will be proven true. McGregor, a top name in the UFC, hasn’t fought since breaking his leg in July 2021 against Dustin Poirier.
Since then, fans have eagerly waited to see the “Notorious One” back in action. UFC President Dana White ended suffering when he announced McGregor’s return in his UFC 300 post-fight press conference.
After nearly three years of waiting, it would be a shame if fans didn’t get to see McGregor fight at UFC 303.
Despite a chaotic past few days, the event has not been cancelled just yet. Let’s hope that it remains that way for one of the UFC’s most anticipated fights of the year.
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