Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler Is STILL Most Likely On Despite Rumors To The Contrary
After the sold out McGregor/Chandler press conference in Dublin for UFC 303 was postponed indefinitely on just a few hours notice this week, speculation began to run rampant on social media over whether or not the fight had been cancelled. Nobody seemed/seems to have any information as to why the presser was called off, but Ariel Helwani confirmed that it absolutely has nothing to do with McGregor drinking or failing a drug test or anything salacious - making many start questioning whether or not he was injured or had a medical/family emergency.
Michael Chandler posted that he'll be in Nashville, indicating he's leaving training camp in Florida....
UFC and ESPN took the option to pre-order UFC 303 down....
….and everyone panicked. Straight up lost their minds. I heard the fight must be called off, McGregor will never fight again, he's washed, he's gonna retire, etc. Everyone was going insane.
Everyone except….me. I told you all that this was nothing to worry about. I said McGregor is probably just training so hard he doesn't have time for pressers, and still plans on fighting eight times in the next calendar year….and whaddya know? It looks like I was right!
Ariel Helwani is now reporting that as of this morning, there is "great positivity" that McGregor and Chandler are fighting on June 29th. Does he believe the fight is gonna happen on that date? Yep!
Obviously that's not the concrete confirmation we were all looking/hoping for, but it's a step in the right direction.
Honestly, if you're askin me, I think Conor was injured in training and couldn't hide it for the presser in Dublin, so they had to cancel - but after a few days of assessment, the injury isn't bad enough to force him out of the UFC 303 main event. That's my theory.
I don't like that he may be going into this fight compromised (like he did for the Mendes fight, the Khabib fight, and the third Poirier fight), but it is what it is at this point. Conor McGregor doesn't pull out of fights; never has, never will.
Plus, he could probably knock Chandler out on one leg anyway. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Now everybody just take a deep breath and stop the panicking. 24 days til the greatest comeback in sports history.