Call Michael Chandler a fool for continuously waiting for Conor McGregor, but the fighter believes he has all the insurance and signs that the fight will still be pushed.
Despite months of wait and numerous teases of his comeback, McGregor still has no fight booked under his name. This, of course, is also bad news for Chandler, whose return also depends on the Irish fighter. Now, he’s more than a year in his layoff in hopes of welcoming back “The Notorious” in the cage.
In the past weeks, McGregor made several claims that he would be back in June and join the UFC 300 card. However, all the announcements were dismissed by UFC CEO Dana White. Yet, Chandler continues to wait. While some might see the decision as something worthless, Chandler believes that he has all the signs telling him this will still happen. That includes the conversation he had with the UFC executives, explaining to him why booking the match is kind of difficult.
“I knew what I signed up for,” Chandler said on The MMA Hour. “I will say that. And every month that goes by, I’m like, ‘Man, I didn’t know it was going to take this long.’ But then I’m reminded of the conversation I had with Dana [White] and Hunter [Campbell], and they’re like, ‘Hey, this is going to be something different than you’ve ever done before. This is not like booking a regular fight.’ So there’s going to be some highs, there’s going to be some lows, there’s going to be some brick walls you’re going to run into. There’s going to be some days you want to step off the train, but stay on the train.
“So we’re we’re heading towards a collision course. Conor’s road back to the UFC goes through Nashville, Tennessee. He can’t go and fight anybody else. He’s fighting me. It’s Chandler vs. McGregor. Hopefully, this summer. That’s my plan. I’m at least planning for that sometime this summer after UFC 300. And we’ll see when that contract gets booked. Whenever the fight announcement happens, it’s going to be a big one.”
Recently, White questioned McGregor’s priorities by mentioning his upcoming film and business. The executive also admitted that the fighter being “f*cking rich” is a problem affecting the delay. Chandler echoed the points but didn’t view them as substantial reasons that would officially end the fight talks.
“I think every day it’s a moving target,” Chandler said. “Like I said, if I was having any kind of inclination or information coming to my doorstep, on my phone, behind the scenes, that made it sound like this fight was not happening, yeah, we might make a pivot. But as of right now, it’s happening. And like I said, we don’t have a date, but we sure are getting dang close.”
