Following a hiatus of three years from the octagon, Irish fighter Conor McGregor is making his anticipated comeback against Michael Chandler on June 29. The interruption in McGregor’s career happened when his left leg was fractured while fighting Dustin Poirier, according to Dana White, President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). According to White, this welterweight fight will be the highlight of the UFC 303 card in Las Vegas, a disclosure he made subsequent to the UFC 300 event on Saturday.
Before going into hiatus due to a straighforward tibia fracture, McGregor (22-6) was on a losing streak with two consecutive TKO losses to Poirier, the last one taking place in July 2021. Post-injury, the one-time UFC featherweight and lightweight champion was compelled to go in for surgical intervention. Chandler (23-8), who previously held the lightweight championship for Bellator, also faced a defeat against Poirier in his last fight, which happened in November 2022.
The UFC had been hinting at this fight for over a year, and McGregor and Chandler previously took opposing sides as coaches on the MMA-themed reality TV show, The Ultimate Fighter. In a video uploaded on X last December, McGregor made the public announcement that Chandler would be his adversary in what he termed as the “biggest comeback ever”.
Dana White revealed some inside story saying, “There’s a lot happening behind the scenes and it’s all about the right timing. Chandler has been prepared but McGregor was not ready. As I mentioned in a recent press conference, he had many commitments to fulfil. We surely wouldn’t want him to commit to a fight with a mountain of obligations which doesn’t allow him to train entirely for a fight, hence the reason we are here today.”
On the other hand, at the UFC 300 event, Brazil’s Alex Pereira succeeded in retaining the light heavyweight title by knocking out Jamahal Hill in the first round, while the strawweight championship remained with Zhang Weili after she emerged victorious against Yan Xiaonan.
Pereira smoothly sidestepped what appeared to be a low punch from Hill, before retaliating with a left hook that propelled the American backwards to the canvas. Colorful confetti of punches rained from Pereira, leading to the halt of the match at 3 minutes and 14 seconds in the first round. Post-match inside the cage, Pereira explained, “I forewarned everyone about the dude’s strength, and not to veer from my battle plan. That’s precisely how I performed… I was zeroing in on the range and the rhythm, and everything fell into place perfectly.”
Earlier in 2023, Hill had clinched the title in January but was forced to relinquish it in July due to a basketball-related injury. Reputed kickboxer Pereira, an ex-UFC middleweight champion, then claimed the title after a second-round knockout of Jiri Prochazka in November. Despite this fight, Pereira indicated his lack of damage post-match and expressed his ambitions to compete in the forthcoming UFC card in Brazil set for May.
In an exclusively Chinese showdown in the strawweight bout, Zhang was on the brink of ending the match in the first round with a rear naked choke. However, her 34-year-old adversary withstood the assault until the final bell, wobbling back onto her feet. Yan managed to gain some leverage standing, but Zhang consistently took the fight to the ground, assertively ruling the grappling showdowns and securing a unanimous decision triumph.
In another breathtaking climax of the event, Max Holloway struck down Justin Gaethje with a booming right punch, clinching their lightweight bout by knockout, with just one tick left on the clock after an intense five-round dispute.