Conor McGregor’s return will have to wait. UFC president Dana White announced on Thursday that McGregor, who was set to face Michael Chandler in the main event of UFC 303 on June 29, was out of the fight with an injury. He did not specify what the injury was in a short video on social media.
White did, however, announce the replacement fight for the main event of International Fight Week. Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will take on Jiri Prochazka.
McGregor and Chandler were scheduled for a press conference to promote the bout on June 3, but rumors started leaking out the day before that something was up. Then, the morning of the scheduled press conference, UFC put out a statement saying that the press conference was canceled without any further information.
McGregor was set for his first fight since a July 2021 TKO loss to Dustin Poirier, the second such consecutive loss to Poirier. The difference in the rematch was that McGregor suffered a broken tibia, forcing him out of action for significant time.
Since defeating Eddie Alvarez in November 2016 to win the lightweight championship and become the first UFC fighter to simultaneously hold titles in two weight classes (he also was featherweight champion at the time), McGregor has only fought four times in the Octagon. Three of those four fights were stoppage losses – including a loss to then-lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in arguably the biggest UFC fight in history – with the lone win over Donald Cerrone in the middle of Cerrone’s six-fight, career-ending losing skid.
McGregor also mixed in a February 2017 TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather.
In anticipation of the fight with Chandler, the pair faced off as opposing coaches on season 31 of “The Ultimate Fighter.”
