Michael Chandler Addresses Conor McGregor Fight Cancellation

Michael Chandler recently weighed in on his canceled fight with Conor McGregor .

After months of anticipation, Chandler was finally scheduled to headline UFC 303 against McGregor on June 29. However, Dana White confirmed last week that the fight was off, as McGregor pulled out due to an injury. Chandler addressed the situation for the first time since that announcement in a video on social media.

“Well it’s Monday morning, on the trail right now, getting my mind right, thinking about what has transpired over the last couple of days…Got the rug pulled out from underneath me at the last possible moment,” Chandler said. “I had just got done with my last sparring session Thursday morning. I’d been hearing rumblings since Monday obviously but really got the call about an hour after my last sparring session was completed… The happiest and healthiest and hardest to kill, most dangerous man I have ever been in my entire life in that moment, to 30 minutes later getting a phone call that all of that was for naught. Or was it?”

Chandler has been waiting for the McGregor fight for a year and a half since they appeared as rival coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter” Season 31. It became apparent that their UFC 303 booking was in jeopardy when a Dublin press conference was canceled on 12 hours’ notice earlier this month. White confirmed those fears with his announcement that the fight was off last week.

While there was initially some speculation regarding a postponed date for the fight, White recently said that he isn’t willing to discuss McGregor’s return until “Notorious” is fit and in fighting shape. Currently standing at a crossroads in his career, Chandler plans to keep on working instead of worrying about outcomes.

“So what do I do now? A little bit of uncertainty in my life,” Chandler said. “When’s this fight gonna happen? What date would it be rebooked for? What venue? How bad is the injury? Reports have come out that it’s not that bad, just needs a little bit of a delay. But still, no guarantees. But I thrive when there are no guarantees. Just a walk-on kid from High Ridge, Missouri, who has continued to trod in a forward trajectory no matter what the opposition, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the situation. It’s not up to me to will outcomes into existence. It is up to me to do the work. We let the work talk. We do the work. And we do the work until we become undeniable.”

While McGregor hasn’t fought in three years, Chandler has also been on the sidelines since a submission loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 281 in November 2022. Now that the fight is off, Chandler doesn’t want anyone’s sympathy.

“Don’t you dare disrespect me by feeling sorry for me,” he said. “Don’t you dare disrespect me by having any kind of sympathy. Be emboldened by my situation. Be emboldened by my steadfastness and my immovability of hitching my dreams to a shooting star and continuing to move forward. If you’ve been on this journey with me for a long time you know how I operate. You know where my mindset is, where my mental is. And it is nowhere near down in the dumps. I am emboldened by this test, and this test ain’t done yet. And this test shall turn into part of my testimony.”