At the media scrum for season 8 of the Contender Series this week, Dana White stated that Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return fight won’t happen in 2024 – Michael Chandler believes that this could all be a ruse in order to lure fans into a promotional trap.
Ironically, only a few hours after the press conference and ‘Notorious’ himself would respond to Dana White’s comments, dismissing his supposed timeline as he wrote in a now-deleted tweet on X, “December is the date” and adding in all-caps, “WE WANT DECEMBER! WE DESERVE DECEMER!”
Michael Chandler admits ‘misinformation’ is part of MMA promotion
Speaking to TMZ Sports earlier today, Michael Chandler doubled down in his campaign to see the highly anticipated superfight with Conor McGregor scheduled for UFC 310 in December.
“There’s no reason why Conor can’t fight this year, obviously you know that I can fight this year, but I think it comes down to scheduling,” he stated, adding how “December makes a lot of sense.
“November you’ve got MSG that’s already kind of booked up [and] before that you’ve got Abu Dhabi – December is that big Pay-Per-view card, cap off the year with a huge PPV, Chandler vs McGregor, makes a lot of sense.”
Yet the comments by both Chandler and McGregor are in stark contrast to those of Dana White, with ‘Iron’ smiling as he admitted that part of the promotional game is knowing when to spread the right information, and when to spread the wrong information.
“Dana, as much as we love him, he has also said some things that were just absolutely false in press conferences and whatnot – which is his job.
“His job is sometimes to give you the exact information [you need], his job is also sometimes to give you misinformation… So sometimes saying that the fight isn’t happening this year might mean that the fight is happening this year.”
That UFC 310 event is expected to take place on December 14 in Las Vegas.
“It makes a lot of sense to make McGregor vs Chandler in December, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t… Let’s finish this storybook.”
Does Michael Chandler regret waiting for McGregor? Absolutely not.
Given his ever-optimistic outlook on life and his insatiable desire to test himself against the best athletes in the world, it’s no surprise to hear Chandler also firing back at critics who claim he should have already moved on from McGregor.
“No regrets whatsoever, I think more than anything, I’m not here to educate people on the math of how long I’ve been sitting out,” as he proceeded to educate people on the math.
“If you really think about it, I got the call February 1st, 2023, and then we filmed The Ultimate Fighter for a month and a half, then they cut The Ultimate Fighter, and I traveled around the country promoting it.
“They aired TUF for 12 weeks on ESPN – the epitome of the biggest sports network on the entire planet – and then we’re supposed to fight in the fall… The original date was to fight in September after the show, that’s less than one year ago right now.”
Chandler argued that any MMA fan claiming that he’d wasted his ‘prime years’ by waiting out for the Irish superstar just simply isn’t looking at the facts, before adding that the wait has been somewhat of a good thing for his bank balance.
“So, these people who think that I’ve been sitting out for three years and I’ve wasted two and a half years, wasted all these fights – we were tied out and getting an immense amount of promotion… I got more promotion, probably made some pretty decent change and I’m very happy with my decision.”
A good point well made, “but now, it’s time to fight.”