- Dana White revealed Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return to the octagon
- The Irishman has been out of action since his clash with Dustin Poirier in 2021
Dana White concluded the historic UFC 300 event by officially announcing Conor McGregor’s clash with Michael Chandler.
The pair have been preparing to face each other inside the octagon for months, and even sparred on The Ultimate Fighter TV show with each other.
Speculation has come and gone in recent months, with McGregor recently revealing that he had received confirmation that the fight would take place.
With all parties finally aligned, the UFC president officially announced that the pair will finally face each other on pay-per-view on June 29.
The clash will be contested at 170 pounds and will be a five-round main event.
Dana White has confirmed that Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler will fight on June 29
White made the announcement at a press conference following the historic UFC 300 event.
When asked why the fight had been planned for so long, the UFC president revealed that McGregor was recently able to train for his return to the octagon.
“It’s not like we’ve been working on it for a long time,” White said at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference. ‘There’s all kinds of stuff that happens behind the scenes.
‘It’s all about time. Chandler has been ready but Conor hasn’t. We talked about this recently at one of the press conferences, he had a lot of obligations to deal with.
“What you don’t want him to do is accept a fight when he has a lot of obligations and can’t train 100% for a fight.”
The date remains the same as what McGregor teased in a social media post on New Year’s Eve.
Although at the time the Irishman stated that the fight would take place at middleweight, a division in which neither he nor Chandler had previously competed.
After becoming a two-weight world champion in Cage Warriors, McGregor would sign with the UFC in 2013 and embark on a dominant run in the featherweight division, reeling off five straight wins before defeating Chad Mendes to claim the interim weight title. feather.
McGregor’s last fight at 145lbs saw him dethrone champion Jose Aldo in stunning fashion after just 13 seconds to unify the belts.
The Irishman has since competed at both 155 pounds and 170 pounds, defeating Eddie Alvarez at the former to become the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight world champion.
Traditionally held in July, International Fight Week has been a fixture on the UFC calendar since 2011, with the first edition of the event headlined by UFC 148 which saw Chael Sonnen rematch Anderson Silva for the middleweight title.
Last year, the event in Las Vegas included a Hall of Fame ceremony, a two-day fan experience and a UFC 290 card headlined by featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski’s clash against Yair Rodriguez.