Michael Chandler is still waiting for his fight against Conor McGregor to be booked, and the fighter has to admit that “a lot of money” could really be the main reason behind this delay.
Recently, Chandler made his latest callout to the Irish superstar during an appearance at the WWE RAW event. It was an impromptu moment for “Iron,” who made sure to make a compelling call to the fellow UFC fighter. Yet, the former Bellator fighter admitted being aware of the situation continues to hinder McGregor’s return by acknowledging CEO Dana White’s earlier words.
According to the executive, there are different reasons why McGregor still hasn’t come back to the octagon, mentioning his past injury and preparedness to take a fight. More importantly, White expressed concern about McGregor’s priorities due to his upcoming film, adding the fighter being “f*cking rich” is a problem.
Chandler believes the same, noting that there are lots of other things happening that the MMA world is unaware of.
“There’s a lot of complicated stuff happening behind the scenes,” Chandler said on a recent episode of The MMA Hour. “Nobody has had to feel like they’ve waited longer than me, right? I’ve been ready to fight since right after The Ultimate Fighter. But I also understand the time off has been good, the time with my family has been good, business has been booming outside of me fighting in the cage for a paycheck. But ultimately, Conor’s got his stuff going on. He’s now promoting Road House, that’s coming out in March. Obviously there was the USADA stuff and then now the new drug-testing stuff. There was just all these different layers. Plus what Dana has said, man, money complicates things. There’s a lot of money involved in this fight.”
Ultimately, while Chandler believes who McGregor is now adds to the factors delaying his comeback, he thinks the former champ’s achievements are something to be admired. In the end, the fighter assured fans that the match would be pushed despite criticisms and doubts from others.
“Everybody, whether you love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect what [McGregor] has built, right? So it has complicated things,” said Chandler. “But either way, the Chandler train is continuing to move forward, and we’re not getting off this train. This is the fight that is happening. I can’t tell you a date, I can’t tell you a weight, but I can tell you the fight is happening. And I have way too many assurances that this fight is happening to think otherwise.”