Conor McGregor’s return to the Octagon will have to wait.
UFC announced Thursday that his bout against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29 in Las Vegas has been canceled due to the injury.
Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will defend his belt against Jiri Prochazka in the new main event, UFC CEO Dana White said. Announced in a video On social media.
This was supposed to be McGregor’s first fight since July 2021, when he lost by first-round TKO to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. McGregor suffered a broken tibia in his left leg that night, which ruled him out of further fights, an injury that required surgery and several months of recovery.
McGregor, a former featherweight and lightweight champion, can boast just one win in nearly eight years, a first-round TKO victory over Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.
McGregor, the cocky Irishman known as much for his charisma outside the cage as for his skills inside it, is arguably the biggest superstar in the history of mixed martial arts. He has headlined five of UFC’s highest-grossing pay-per-view events in history, including his bout against Dagestan star Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018, which sold 2.4 million tickets.
He also fought in the ring against boxing legend Floyd Mayweather in August 2017. The spectacle drew 4.3 million PPV, the highest ever for a sporting event.
Chandler, a former UFC lightweight title challenger and longtime Bellator champion, has expressed a desire to face McGregor but has not competed since November 2022. He is two-and-three in five UFC bouts but has received post-fight performance bonuses in four of those bouts.
It is unclear whether the match will be rescheduled.
