Conor McGregor out of comeback fight at UFC 303 due to injury

14 Jun 2024

The Irish Times

Conor McGregor will not fight in UFC 303 due to an injury, UFC chief executive officer Dana White announced Thursday.

The exit of the Irish MMA fighter also leaves his scheduled welterweight opponent, Michael Chandler, off the card for the June 29th event in Las Vegas.

It is unclear when or if the non-title bout between McGregor (22-6) and Chandler (23-8) will occur. The nature of the injury has not been made public.

A highly-publicised press conference for the event, featuring both fighters, had been due to be held at the Three Arena in Dublin on June 3rd, but was postponed at short notice. Free public tickets for the press conference were sold out within minutes of being offered on Ticketmaster the previous week.

The new UFC 303 headline fight will be the light heavyweight title clash between Jiri Prochazka and champion Alex Pereira.

In another schedule change, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jamahal Hill is out of his slated fight against Carlos Ulberg. Instead, Anthony Smith will oppose Ulberg. Hill’s original opposition was due to be Khalil Rountree Jr., but the latter is serving a two-month doping ban.

Added to the card as a new co-main event will be a matchup of featherweights Diego Lopes and Brian Ortega.

Dubliner McGregor, 35, was preparing for his first fight since July 2021, when he lost his second straight matchup with Dustin Poirier due to a leg injury. McGregor last won when he beat Donald Cerrone in January 2020, following up a defeat to Khabib Nurmagomedov in October 2018.

Chandler, a 38-year-old Missouri native who fights out of Florida, has also lost three of his past four bouts. His most recent action was a defeat against Poirier in November 2022.

McGregor and Chandler both served as head coaches last summer on the UFC’s The Ultimate Fighter reality series, which pitches teams of prospective fighters against each other. – Reuters