Conor McGregor breaks silence on "injury" forcing him to withdraw from UFC 303: "The decision to postpone the fight was not made lightly"
Conor McGregor released a statement about his disappointing withdrawal from the UFC 303 main event.
Over the last two weeks, the MMA community was eager to learn if the rumors of McGregor suffering an injury during his training camp were true. Unfortunately, Dana White recently confirmed the former two-division UFC champion won't be able to fight Michael Chandler on June 29 inside the T-Mobile Arena.
Earlier today, McGregor took to Instagram and broke his silence about the situation. 'The Notorious' provided brief details to avoid publicizing the specifics of his injury so Chandler doesn't have an advantage later this year:
"Very tough to be ruled out of my scheduled return bout. I picked up an injury prior to the press conference that required more time to heal than was available to me. The decision to postpone the fight was not made lightly, but one made in consultation with my doctors, the UFC, and my team. My fans and opponent deserve me at my best for this fight and we will get there! Thank you for the messages of support, I am in good spirits and confident I'll be back!"
Dana White also announced the replacement for the UFC 303 main event. Instead of Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler, the June 29 pay-per-view main event will be headlined by Alex Pereira defending his light heavyweight throne in a highly-anticipated rematch against Jiri Prochazka.
Ariel Helwani provides update on new timeline for Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler
Luckily, Ariel Helwani reported that Conor McGregor's injury isn't overly severe, so he should be able to fight in a few months. It's unclear what pay-per-view that McGregor vs Chandler would target, but Helwani offered the following timeline in an extended message posted on X:
"The consensus seems to be that they want to announce it all + the new date for McGregor x Chandler. August or September has been discussed, and that would likely mean creating a new PPV dates those months (8/31 and 9/28) have been discussed. That part - which is massive in all this - hasn’t been finalized."
McGregor's injury will extend his layoff that started with his first-round TKO loss against Dustin Poirier in July 2021. Meanwhile, Michael Chandler also hasn't fought in over a year, as he last stepped into the octagon during a third-round submission loss against Poirier in November 2022.