Michael Chandler is still hopeful he will get a chance to fight Conor McGregor.
Chandler had been holding out to fight McGregor in his return after the two coached TUF against one another. Yet, the bout didn’t happen, and now McGregor will be making his return against Holloway.
Although Chandler is fighting on the White House card, he is still confident that he and McGregor will fight, whether it’s in the UFC or outside the promotion.
“It’s funny, man: Me vs. Conor, whether it was ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ in the lead-up, then the actual training camp, then the pullout of the fight and the possible rebooking – this whole thing has been an up-and-down soap opera for the better part of a couple years,” Chandler said to MMAJunkie. “As big as it was, as entrenched as I was into it, I just feel like I’m a million miles away now. I don’t really have any emotions about it, and maybe it’s because obviously I’m focused on Mauricio Ruffy at the White House. But man, I wish Conor well. The sport is a better place when Conor McGregor is training and on his way back. Max got the nod. We’ll get to see them compete here, it’s only five weeks away. I’ll be there cageside watching, very interested in how that fight goes.
‘The story is there’
“Whether me and Conor fight in the UFC or not, Conor and I will compete against each other at some point, in some venue, somewhere, somehow, some way. The story is there, the animosity is there, but also the mutual respect is already there. It’s got all the makings of a blockbuster. So if it happens down the line, it happens down the line. But I wish him well and it’s good to hear obviously. I know they wanted that fight. I wanted the fight. Obviously the UFC had different plans, and the UFC has every right to make whatever fight they want to make. So, here we are.”
Despite Michael Chandler not being the return fight as he had hoped, he remains confident he and Conor McGregor will fight by the time both of them retire.
The fight could also happen next if Chandler beats Mauricio Ruffy at the White House, which ‘Iron’ expects to do.
“I’m going to knock out Mauricio Ruffy on the White House lawn,” Chandler said. “And then we’ll see what happens after that.”
Michael Chandler is 23-10 and is coming off a stoppage loss to Paddy Pimblett, which was his third-straight loss.
Do you think we will ever see Michael Chandler vs. Conor McGregor?
