Michael Chandler will finally get what he’s been waiting for as his fight against Conor McGregor was finally officially announced for UFC 303, on International Fight Week.
Conor McGregor jokingly made the announcement at the start of the year in a social media post, as he was sat sipping a glass of wine. In the post, he claimed the fight against Michael Chandler would happen in June, and it would take place at middleweight.
More recently, ‘The Notorious’ said on the press run of the film release Road House, that he had been given the go-ahead for the fight to take place in the summer.
Despite that, the UFC never officially announced it until this past Saturday at UFC 300, when CEO Dana White told the media after the event, that the fight is official for UFC 303 on June 29th.
The last time the former two-weight world champion fought, was when he broke his ankle in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier in 2021.
Similarly, Chandler’s last fight came against ‘The Diamond’ at UFC 281, almost two years ago.
Michael Chandler predicts a second-round finish over Conor McGregor
After the two coached against each other in the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, the fight was originally planned to happen sooner rather than later.
The only other time TUF coaches haven’t ended up fighting each other, was back in Season 22, when Conor McGregor coached against Urijah Faber.
When the two were announced as the TUF coaches, Michael Chandler offered an early prediction of how he sees the fight against McGregor going. In a recent interview with TheMacLife, he has doubled down on the prediction.
- INTERIM: Kayla Harrison names who she wants to fight next after claiming Raquel Pennington is ‘suddenly hurt’
“I still see the outcome the same way. I think I’ll put him on his back foot in the first round and make him second guess himself in the first round and start drowning him, and finish him in the second.
“I don’t know if it’ll be a KO or a choke, make him give up his back or neck, but I think it’ll be a second-round finish, that has not changed, that’s my mystic Mike prediction.” Chandler added.
Michael Chandler ‘wouldn’t be surprised’ if his fight with McGregor is for a belt
Since the announcement of the fight, there have been a multitude of different rumors regarding the weight-class, and if it’d involve a belt.
One rumor that surfaced was that the fight would be contested at 165lbs, and it’d mark the integration of a new weight class, subsequently being for a title. Of course, that didn’t turn out entirely true.
Dana White did announce, however, that the fight would take place at 170lbs. Michael Chandler admitted that he wouldn’t be surprised if the fight is for a title of some sort, once he is sent the bout agreement.
“That was one of the rumors as well right, for the 165lb belt, obviously that has not happened. But you know what, we all love to talk and even me in this position now, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of a sudden that bout agreement comes over and it says ‘for the 165lb title’, you never know.
“The UFC has to keep a lot of things secret, even to us. They want to hold a lot of the information, we knew the date, obviously I didn’t really know – I knew what the weight class was most likely going to be – so yeah, it should be for a belt but we’ll see if we can’t make one up.” Chandler added.
If the fight does in fact take place at 170lbs, because of the magnitude of it, the winner could likely secure themselves a welterweight title shot. Current champion, Leon Edwards, is yet to have his next defense announced, with it likely coming against Belal Muhammad in July.
The Irishman has fought at 170lbs on one previous occasion when he beat Donald Cerrone four years ago. ‘Iron’ Mike on the other hand began his career at 170lbs, fighting at the weight twice.