Conor McGregor released a statement and broke his silence about his postponed fight against Michael Chandler at UFC 303.
June 29th was expected to be McGregor’s return to the octagon after suffering a broken leg in his last fight against Dustin Poirier three years ago. McGregor and his fans will just have to wait a little while longer.
McGregor confirmed he suffered an undisclosed injury and had to pull out of the fight.
“Very tough to be ruled out of my scheduled return bout,” McGregor wrote on Instagram. “I picked up an injury prior to the press conference that required more time to heal than was available to me.
“The decision to postpone the fight was not made lightly, but one made in consultation with my doctors, the UFC, and my team. My fans and opponent deserve me at my best for this fight and we will get there! Thank you for the messages of support, I am in good spirits and confident I’ll be back!”
UFC 303’s main event will now be a Light Heavyweight title match between champion Alex Pereira and No. 1 challenger Jiří Procházka. The co-main event will be a Featherweight bout between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes.
The road to UFC 303 has been littered with potholes. The UFC canceled a press conference between McGregor and Chandler in Dublin, Ireland for previously unspecified reasons. Over 10,000 fans were reportedly expected to be in attendance.
Dustin Poirier, who just came up short for the lightweight title this month, predicted McGregor would knockout Chandler.
“Yeah, both of those guys’ last fight was me,” Poirier said on First Take. “And even Chandler has had a little bit of a layoff … From my experience of being in there with them and just knowing the sport, if Conor is anywhere similar to where he was before the injury with his timing, with his accuracy, the stylistic matchup with Michael Chandler, I think he clips him.
“Chandler covers too much distance, not properly, not the best footwork, lunging in with shots and that’s how you get countered. That’s how you if Connor is the matador and has the same timing and pop that he had before the injury. Connor is going to stop this guy.”
McGregor and Chandler were pitted against each other in The Ultimate Fighter last summer and the two were finally scheduled to fight in a welterweight (170 pounds) main event. Now, the UFC has to find a new date.
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