Michael Chandler knew what he was getting in to with Conor McGregor.
On Thursday night, UFC CEO Dana White announced that Chandler’s highly anticipated matchup with Conor McGregor is off of UFC 303. The welterweight bout was schedueld to headline the June 29 card in Las Vegas, but McGregor has been forced to withdraw due to injury.
Sponsor MegaFit Meals released a statement in collaboration with Chandler addressing the news Friday, acknowledging that booking a fight with McGregor was “the highest risk.”
“[McGregor] was never the safe bet as an opponent, he was always the highest risk,” an accompanying Instagram caption reads. “Maybe the highest reward… but the biggest opportunity. There is no right or wrong in business… you only take risk to grow, or remain comfortable where you are. Embrace the uncertainty. Seek the opportunity. Take calculated risk… That’s what [Chandler] does.
“And if it doesn’t go as planned… redirect the course to something even more great. Our respect to the man who represents the fight world better than anyone we’ve ever known. NO FEAR. NO LIMITS. NO EXCUSES. Make hard work your passion – who cares who’s on the other side of the punch.”
The UFC 303 main event was to be McGregor’s comeback fight from a broken leg that he suffered in a loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021. Chandler and McGregor were assigned to be rival coaches on the most recent season of The Ultimate Fighter with the expectation that they would fight one another following the conclusion of the program, but Chandler still had to wait months for their matchup to become official.
Though a McGregor fight typically brings extra attention and pay to his opponents, so far the wait has proven costly for Chandler. Because of his pursuit of the McGregor fight, Chandler has not fought since November 2022 and he was recently removed from the MMA Fighting Global Rankings due to inactivity.
A rematch between light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka now serves as the new UFC 303 headliner.