During the UFC 301 broadcast this past Saturday, the first promotion video for Conor McGregor’s comeback fight at UFC 303 was released which involved a noticeable omission.
The return of Conor McGregor was finally announced earlier last month at UFC 300, as Dana White revealed his anticipated fight against Michael Chandler would take place at UFC 303, on International Fight Week.
Surprisingly, the UFC CEO also announced that the fight – which takes place on June 29th – will be contested at welterweight. The former two-weight world champion has only competed at 170lbs on two occasions.
The last time was in 2020 when he defeated Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in round one of his return fight after a two-year hiatus following his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov.
The first promotion video for UFC 303 is released with Michael Chandler not involved
The promotion video features ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor walking into the shot with a foggy background, while his walkout song, Foggy Dew plays.
Although the video released on the UFC’s official YouTube channel is only 30 seconds long, there was one extremely noticeable omission. ‘Iron’ Michael Chandler doesn’t feature in the video, at all.
McGregor shared the video to his Instagram page stating, “The big boy is home.”
Despite the Irishman being the biggest draw in UFC history – eight of the top ten highest-performing UFC PPVs of all time have been McGregor fights – the decision to leave out one-half of the main event in the first promo video has been picked up by a large portion of the UFC fanbase.
@TotallyNoCat commented on YouTube with a laughing emoji, “They didn’t even put Chandler in the trailer”, with @theDingKing replying, “Chandler would be so mad”.
However, some other parts of the fanbase didn’t mind the omission of the 38-year-old.
@FocusProb commented on X, “The champ champ is back!”
Charles Oliveira offers to be backup fighter in case of UFC 303 main event pullout
‘Do Bronx’ has been campaigning for a fight against Conor McGregor, even after his recent UFC 300 loss against Arman Tsarukyan.
Charles Oliveira has recently hinted that he is considering the possibility of moving up to welterweight, if there is a fight that further enhances his legacy and his pockets.
Not only that but Oliveira admitted to the media recently at UFC 301 media day, that he has offered to be the backup fighter at UFC 303 in case one of the headliners withdraws from the fight.
“I offered to be the alternate for that (Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler) fight, I’ll make some money if I don’t fight, if I do fight, awesome. The only condition if I fight McGregor is I would have to renegotiate (my contract) before.” Oliveira stated.
Michael Chandler expecting a different Conor McGregor at UFC 303
With this being the 35-year-old Irishman’s first fight back since breaking his leg in his trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier three years ago, Chandler believes McGregor will ‘not be what he used to be’.
“His time out of the cage has leant itself to his timing not being what it used to be, his movement not being what it used to be, his reflexes not being what they used to be.” Chandler told the Shawn Ryan Show.
The exciting brawler also stated that he believes he is the ‘better fighter’ and deserves it more than his Irish counterpart.
“I’ve earned this, realize that I am the better fighter, I am the tougher fighter, and the guy who deserves it more, whether that be getting in his face and wilting his spirit a little bit. I don’t need to be getting into a firefight with a guy with a bigger rifle than me.” Chandler added.
- HUGE FIGHT: Undefeated bantamweight set to main event UFC Abu Dhabi in title eliminator fight against Cory Sandhagen