Conor McGregor is again – for actual this time.
The Irish celebrity and former two-division champion lastly makes his 170-pound return to motion in opposition to Michael Chandler within the five-round fundamental occasion of UFC 303, which caps off Worldwide Combat Week 2024 on June 29 from T-Cellular Enviornment in Las Vegas.
The UFC introduced the matchup in the course of the UFC 300 post-fight press convention on Saturday night time.
It’s been a very long time coming for McGregor, whose layoff started with a devastating damage in his most up-to-date outing, a UFC 264 combat with Dustin Poirier that ended with a damaged leg. The damage stored McGregor sidelined, however he plotted his return this previous yr when he signed on to educate The Final Fighter 31 reverse Chandler.
The teaching stint on the truth present got here and went, and McGregor nonetheless didn’t make his return, largely as a result of he hadn’t re-enrolled within the UFC’s anti-doping program. McGregor lastly submitted himself to drug testing once more this previous October, and after present process the six months of required testing, he was clear to combat as of March.
Rumors swirled for weeks that McGregor would face Chandler at UFC 300, however he had a previous dedication to advertise the brand new Street Home remake on Amazon, which served as his first starring function in a characteristic movie. That promotion schedule would have made preventing at UFC 300 almost unimaginable.
As for Chandler, the previous Bellator light-weight champion has been out of motion for over a yr ready for the McGregor combat. He most lately appeared in November 2022, when he suffered a submission loss to Dustin Poirier, dropping his total UFC file to 2-3.
Chandler hopes to get again on observe whereas taking out the largest attract UFC historical past when he faces McGregor in June. Extra fights are anticipated to be introduced for the June pay-per-view within the coming weeks.
