Conor McGregor Out Of UFC 303 Fight Vs. Chandler After Suffering Injury | TMZ Sports
Conor McGregor's UFC comeback has been put on hold -- the "Notorious" is OUT of his UFC 303 main event fight against Michael Chandler.
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00:00If you were waiting, if you were anticipating Conor McGregor's return to the Octagon, you
00:10are unfortunately going to have to wait a little bit more because The Notorious is out
00:16of his UFC 303 main event fight, the highly anticipated fight against Michael Chandler.
00:24Mojo Conor suffered an injury.
00:27We knew something was wrong, let's be honest, ever since that Dublin press conference from
00:33a couple of weeks back was canceled at the last minute.
00:36We knew something was wrong.
00:38There was rumblings that Conor had suffered some sort of injury, but the UFC didn't announce
00:44anything.
00:45So there was a glimmer of hope that the event could continue on with that main event involving
00:51Conor and Michael.
00:53Last night, Thursday night, UFC honcho Dana White goes to social media and he announces
00:59the news that we all hoped wouldn't come, that Conor, yes, did hurt himself and he is
01:03now out.
01:04Also out, Mojo, is Michael Chandler.
01:07They are going to hopefully make this fight sometime over the next couple of months.
01:11Let's be honest, Michael Chandler has been waiting for years to fight Conor McGregor.
01:16They opposed each other as coaches on The Ultimate Fighter Show.
01:20They are going to fight, but it's just not going to be on July 29th.
01:24In its place, and Dana White and the UFC to their credit, they moved quick here and there
01:29is only one Conor McGregor, so you're not going to get a Conor McGregor to replace Conor,
01:34but they did pretty well.
01:35They've got the guy who anchored the UFC 300 card, the guy who was a former middleweight
01:40champion who is currently the light heavyweight champion, the guy who a lot of people think
01:45is the most dangerous guy in the entire sport, Alex Pereira, who is fighting another guy
01:50who is a former champion in Yuri Prohoshka.
01:52So that's going to be the main event, Mojo.
01:54No Conor McGregor.
01:56Babcock, that is a fantastic main event and it is going to be awesome, but it is no Conor
02:03McGregor fight, right?
02:05I mean, is there anyone in the UFC that's selling pay-per-views like Conor McGregor
02:10that knows how to drum up more buzz and hype and excitement than Conor McGregor?
02:16I mean, literally anybody else after Conor, there's going to be a lot of disappointed
02:22people in the fight game.
02:24So really unfortunate here.
02:26I mean, Babcock, honestly, my mind can't tell, but look longterm on this one, right?
02:33I mean, yes, it sucks that he won't be on this one individual fight car, but now we
02:38still got to start thinking about what Conor McGregor's future looks like inside an Octagon.
02:45It's been a long time since the last fight, right?
02:49Yeah.
02:50But Mojo to be exact, that was UFC 264, July of 2021.
02:55We're almost at three years at this point.
02:58Exactly.
02:59Babcock, we're coming up on UFC 303, so 264 to 303, three years in between.
03:08That is a lifetime in the fight game.
03:11I mean, that's long enough for a young up and comer, right?
03:14But for someone that's been there and has taken the shots, now you really do got to
03:18think about longevity.
03:20You couple that with the fact that Conor McGregor is becoming a big deal outside of the fight
03:25game as well.
03:27We saw him in the road house remake say what you want.
03:31I thought he did quite well, especially for a first time actor.
03:35And it's not like they just, you know, dip their toes in the creek sort of speak right
03:40back.
03:41This guy was thrust in to be the top villain opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, a legitimate A-list
03:48actor.
03:49Yeah.
03:50I mean, that's the reality, Mojo, right?
03:51Is that he he's doing this because he loves the fight because he doesn't need to fight
03:56for the money.
03:57I mean, he he has made more money, you know, that he could spend like crazy for the rest
04:02of his life.
04:03His kids could do the same.
04:04Their kids could do the same.
04:05So he doesn't he doesn't need the fight.
04:06Do you think here's a theory that I had on this?
04:10It doesn't seem and we don't know the exact nature of the injury, Mojo.
04:13It doesn't seem to me like it's that serious because the UFC was clearly holding out hope
04:17that Conor might actually be able to fight at the end of this month at 303.
04:22Obviously, at the end of the day, the injury was serious enough to prevent him from fighting.
04:26But it's not something like he broke his leg again because we would have known immediately
04:30then no chance he could fight.
04:32The fact that they waited and hope that he might be able to get into the cage.
04:36That leads me to believe that there is hope and that he might be able to do this sometime
04:41this summer.
04:42Maybe he does it in July or August if it was a serious injury where he had to wait another
04:47year or two.
04:48I don't think we'd ever see him in that cage again, Mojo.
04:50But do you think there's something to that, that because they waited, that shows that
04:53it's not that serious of an injury?
04:56I think that rationale holds for sure, Babcock.
04:59I mean, bad injuries are typically black and white, right?
05:04It's not, Hey, I wonder if I'll be able to suck it up with this torn ACL to make it through
05:09the next fight.
05:10I mean, no, if you think there's a chance, I got to think that means, you know, he's
05:15going to be back on the men soon.