UFC Rumors: Conor McGregor Replacement Found as Michael Chandler Fight Sidelined by Dana White at UFC 303

UFC ͏303 main event might be in a comatose state as Conor McGreg͏͏or can pull out just weeks before the fight. Rumor͏s about fight cancellation are abuzz and the fact that promotion is yet to provide ͏official confirmation isn’t helping. Meanwhile, Dana ͏Whit͏e‘s war room is bustling about. Out and about is a spec͏ulation rising that the light heavyweight tit͏le will once again be contested, with Alex ͏Perei͏ra and J͏ir͏i Prochazka set to dance͏ once more at the T-Mobile Arena.

Prochazka and Pereria fought once before at the UFC 295, ‘Poatan’ defeated the Czech samurai, making the former the first fighter in the promotion’s history to capture titles at both middleweight and light heavyweight. Prochazka embraced defeat like a warrior and walked away.

The former dual weight champion recently shared an Instagram story which was an alarming situation for the MMA fans who were expecting to witness the comeback of the classic Conor McGregor. What did he share you ask? Well, ‘The Notorious’ shared an old video of him talking about injuries and the ability to train in injuries.

In the video, a much younger McGregor said, “I think the more resistance you train with, the less movement and the more injury you risk. Conversely, the less resistance you train with, the more movement and the less injury you experience.

“A resistance band balances itself: you might be going a little bit lighter, but the impositions are not as intense. If everyone was tense and trying to win every round, it would be different.”

McGregor added a sad emoji to this statement as well. This might be the final nail in the coffin of his comeback story. So what’s next for the UFC 303? Will we be witnessing a premium UFC event without a main event? Well, obviously not.

Various sources suggest that the promotion is in the process of making the fight happen. The fight should not come as a shock for the community as just a few days ago, Prochazka announced that he had signed a contract with the promotion and is waiting for the UFC to announce it further. He never said what contract but looking at the developments, it seems like it’s a rematch at UFC 303.

The clash might be happening at the UFC 303 but we are yet to receive any official confirmation from the promotion regarding the clash. However, what’s happening with the McGregor-Chandler saga? Let’s find out.

A sad tale that is the McGregor-Chandler saga

Michael Chandler waited for Conor McGregor for more than a year since his last clash against Dustin Poirier back in 2022. After a frustrating and painstaking wait, McGregor finally confirmed that they would be clashing at the International Fight Week on June 29th. It was later confirmed by Dana White at the UFC 300 post-fight press conference. The build-up for the match started with both the fighters calling each other out in Dana White’s presence at TUF 31.

However, everything fell off at the start of the month. Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler were supposed to face each other on June 3rd at a pre-fight press conference in Dublin but it was canceled by the promotion without giving any explanation. This started a flurry of conspiracy inside the MMA community. The UFC’s official YouTube channel even privatized some of McGregor’s previous fight videos that were uploaded to build up to the clash.

Renowned journalist, Ariel Helwani even shared that the pessimism regarding the clash is at an all-time high and the UFC is gunning for a new main event. All of this together made it sure for the fans that the anticipated Conor McGregor comeback is not happening. Will the Alex Pereria vs. Jiri Prochazka fight happen? Or there’s still some optimism for McGregor’s comeback? Only time has the answer.