Michael Chandler has been waiting to fight Conor McGregor for the last two years. The duo appeared as rival head coaches in last year’s ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ season and was slated to fight in November last year. However, the bout kept getting delayed, with speculations that the fight would ultimately fall off.

Dana White ended the speculations for a brief period with his announcement at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference that ‘Mac’ will take on ‘Iron’ at UFC 303 on June 29. But, the cancellation of the UFC 303 press conference cast dark clouds over the bout again. Amid all the speculations, Michael Chandler has no doubts that the fight will happen on UFC 303.

Michael Chandler has his reasons to believe the fight is still on

Michael Chandler, 38, put his career virtually on hold, having last fought two years ago, waiting for McGregor and his own ‘red-panty night’. The Missouri native is hopeful about the fight, despite the abrupt cancellation of the recent press conference in Dublin, and the subsequent alarm bells that the UFC insiders like Daniel Cormier and Jon Anik have rung. Chandler has faith in the UFC for one simple reason, they haven’t offered him another fight.

“I always remained faithful in the whole scenario. You got the public perception and then you have the actual people in the trenches, right? The guys on the phone call with Dana and Hunter, management, and the guys behind the closed doors having the conversations. And I was getting enough reassurance that this was the route to continue to follow. I was never offered another fight,” Chandler told Ryan Clark in an interview.

Chandler reminded Clark if the UFC wanted him to move on, it could have offered him another fight (and a handsome paycheck) to do so, but that hasn’t been the case.

Chandler is confident McGregor will show up

The former Bellator champion is confident that McGregor “wants” the fight and will show up on June 29, despite the recent developments. This, undoubtedly, is what all the UFC fans are hoping for. UFC 303 has already become the highest-grossing gate event in UFC history with a reported $20 million collection.

“If it was the UFC wanting me to get off the Conor McGregor versus Chandler bandwagon, they could have very easily been like ‘hey, this guy’s hurt, we need you to step in. You want to step in?’ I never got one of those phone calls so that to me says it’s the fight that the UFC wants. It’s obviously the fight that I want and it’s the fight that Conor wants,” Chandler told Clark.

Chandler feels because he and McGregor appeared on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ last year, the UFC would also want to make sure that they fight, as has been the case for all the opposing head coaches for the past thirty seasons. What are your thoughts on Chandler’s claims?