Dana White & Conor McGregor Make Last Ditch Attempt to Save UFC 303 Main Event on Verge of Falling Apart

The plot thickens. The status of Conor McGregor‘s UFC 303 bout is still in the air, or so it seems. After Ariel Helwani reported earlier today that the UFC was searching for a replacement bout for McGregor’s June 29 bout against Michael Chandler, it seemed that the fight was all but off.

However, recent social media activity from ‘Mac’ and the UFC seems to cast doubts on the fights being off. About an hour ago, McGregor reposted Michael Bisping‘s post where the UFC commentator reacted to the Irishman’s training footage, declaring “McGregor Looks Sharp & Ready For UFC 303!”

In addition, the UFC, posted an Instagram Story within the past hour, where it is promoting McGregor’s return bout. While this seems like a move from the UFC and ‘Notorious’ to alleviate fans fears about the status of the Dubliner’s upcoming fight, others are more cynical and feel it is just a ploy on both parties’ side to continue to create hype for the bout even though it is almost surely dead.

The cancellation of Mcgregor-Chandler would, of course, come as a huge blow to Dana White and the UFC. Already the highest-grossing gate event in UFC’s three-decade history, the fan outrage will almost definitely be deafening if the UFC 303 main event is called off.

The UFC may be trying to send signals to fans that the bout is still on with the aforementioned Instagram Story, until it can secure a replacement bout. And it is trying to make it seem like everything is business as usual, using the prospect of the fight to encourage fans to participate in a sweepstake by ‘KUDO’, one of its partner brands.

Except for these recent posts by McGregor and the Las Vegas-based promotion, most of the news and updates regarding McGregor-Chandler have been ominous. Along with Helwani, many UFC insiders the likes of commentators Jon Anik and Daniel Cormier have rung the alarm bells on the prospects of the UFC 303 main event bout.

‘DC’, Jon Anik indicate Conor McGregor out of UFC 303

The first real sign that McGregor-Chandler is in trouble came when a press conference scheduled for June 3 in ‘Mac’s hometown of Dublin was abruptly and inexplicably called off by the Dana White-led promotion. Fans took to social media to speculate the reason behind this cancellation, with theories ranging from ‘Notorious’ being too hung-up, to an injury, to it all being a cynical marketing ploy by the business-savvy Irishman.

After the cancellation of the media day event, UFC insiders too, started to cast doubts on the status of McGregor’s comeback fight. Daniel Cormier, for instance, on his ‘Good Guy/ Bad Guy’ show the next day, revealed that the UFC officials were uncharacteristically and ominously silent on whether McGregor-Chadnler was still on, which ‘DC’ found quite “concerning.”

UFC’s lead play-by-play commentator, Jon Anik also had a markedly pessimistic tone and was puzzled at the cancellation of the press conference even if there was a small chance the fight would happen as planned.

“If there was a 30% chance that he was going to compete, why do you cancel the press conference?” Anik asked on Bisping’s YouTube channel a week ago.

This, the commentator seemed to imply that the fight was as good as dead. And Ariel Helwani, who has been updating fans regularly on the topic, claimed earlier today that the UFC had not officially announced that the fight was off only because it was looking for a suitable alternative to McGregor-Chandler.

This, of course, will come as a huge blow to fans, who have been eagerly waiting for the return of UFC’s biggest-ever star. The biggest loser, however, will clearly be Michael Chandler. The 38-year-old former Bellator champion has been waiting for two years, and virtually put his career on hold, hoping to fight McGregor for his own ‘red-panty night’. And if the fight is canceled, he would have wasted two valuable years of his MMA career for something that ultimately didn’t even materialize. If that is, McGregor-Chandler is off, which until the UFC makes it official, is still scheduled for UFC 303 on June 29.