Dana White’s Move for Conor McGregor All but Confirms the Fight Is Still On Against Michael Chandler at UFC 303

So, the chips seem to be falling back in place for the Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler bout. Over the last week or so, the needle was tipping the opposite way, especially after a series of discouraging signs about the UFC 303 main event. The fight, set down to go down at June 29th at UFC 303, was supposed to kick-start proceedings with the press conference scheduled in Dublin for June 3. And just when everything seemed ok after months of back and forth, McGregor came forward to cancel the June 3rd press conference, to shock everyone to their core.

The UFC announced the cancellation of the press conference followed by a formal post by McGregor on X which read, “In consultation with the UFC, todays press conference was cancelled due to a series of obstacles outside of our control.” In addition to this, Dana White refrained from talking to anyone about the clash. Further, the social media posts announcing the fights, and the ‘Free Fights’ of McGregor the promotion uploaded on their YouTube channel were taken down.

The MMA community was nearly sure that the clash was canceled or was going to be replaced. Regardless, the UFC’s indications may have stirred up optimism through their recent actions. What is interesting to note is that the promotion has stayed silent throughout the ordeal. Fans and experts have been interpreting the signs and assuming the negative. So, now, the UFC is giving out positive signs and letting them do the same, except this time, the needle is clearly tipping towards the fight going down on June 29th. How, you ask?

The press conference cancelation merely started the rumors. The Free Fights and social media posts being taken down is what really caused concern. However, those fights are back on their channel now for fans to see. In fact, as an added treat, they added one of Chandler’s too. The fights in question are McGregor vs. Diaz 2, McGregor vs. Alvarez, and Chandler’s UFC debut against Dan Hooker. Further, the promotion released the trailer for the fight via YouTube and their social media channels.

The Dublin press conference would ͏ha͏ve been historic, as this would have been only the second time the UF͏C held a press conference in Irela͏nd, and͏ ͏with M͏cGregor͏. The first one took place back ͏in 2015, when ‘Mystic Mac’ was about to fac͏e Jose A͏ldo for the featherweight belt. So, the immediate cancellation of the press conference on June 2nd made room for numerous rumors in the MMA community.

However, all parties involved seem to have made the right call not making any negative remarks about the fight. This has worked well in their favor, as they will not have to offer any detailed explanations about the behind-the-scenes discussions as long as the fight goes down and fans are happy. But, it is obvious to plain sight that things were looking grim for a while but they seem to be getting back on the right track.

In addition to this confirmation, Michael Chandler has even added something that might be taken as an absolute confirmation that the clash is happening.

Michael Chandler finally opens up about the Conor McGregor fight

When Conor McGregor canceled the event, Michael Chandler came forward to state that life goes on and that if anyone wanted him then they would find him at his hometown in Tennessee. Why this is so significant? Well, Chandler was training away from his home and for him to write this on his X handle was alarming. However, after days of back and forth, the former Bellator champion has finally made sure that the fight will be happening.

While having a conversation with ‘The Pivot podcast’, the host asked the fighter whether he is optimistic about his upcoming clash, Chandler asserted that he was never better and emphasized that there will happen irrespective of anything, “The fight is happening, yeah, where we are right now, there’s a lot of speculation but yeah the fight is happening on June 29th,” said Chandler.

So after a few tense days of cryptic social media posts from the main event stars, stoic silence from the promotion, and Dana White going about his life as usual, UFC 303 looks to be staying afloat as initially planned. What do you think? Will ‘The Notorious’ and ‘Iron’ finally conclude their chapter at International Fight Week? Let us know in the comments.