Conor McGregor has been away from the octagon for so long, that many have voiced their doubts if he will ever be back. Already on a three-year hiatus, ‘Mac’ was scheduled to face Michael Chandler on UFC 303 this July. However, a broken toe compelled him to do something he had never done before in his professional career- pull out of a scheduled fight.

Eager to make his comeback, ‘Mac’ has been desperately asking UFC CEO Dana White for a December booking against Chandler, which the Las Vegas resident has denied. And seeing McGregor vulnerable, Chandler, too is taking shots at the Irishman. A few ago, Chandler came out with a tweet writing the epitaph to ‘Mac’s career in very strong terms. While the Dubliner, being the A-side to their matchup seemingly held all the power before, Chandler’s tweet indicates the tables may be flipping. Some have even theorized that perhaps Chandler knows some behind-the-scenes goings-on about Dana White being mad- at McGregor, which made him bold enough to take such caustic shots at ‘Mac’.

But verbose UFC analyst and former superstar Chael Sonnen doesn’t think so. The West Lynn native, in a video on his YouTube channel, claimed that all the speculations about the UFC CEO not being happy with McGregor were hogwash, since ‘Mac’ had done nothing to warrant the UFC CEO’s wrath. ‘Uncle Chae’ felt that Chandler was just pretending that the power equation had changed when it hadn’t.

“Dana White is simply not upset with Conor McGregor, he’s just not. And he is not accusing Conor of being the one to hold up the fight, [or that] Conor McGregor wants something different than what Dana is doing. But Conor has not gotten upset with Dana, he has not said anything along these lines, he has not made any threats. Michael Chandler appears to not have as much inside scoop as I think many times we think,” he said. Even as Chandler blasted ‘Mac’ on Twitter, there is one aspect where the two rivals agree on- the fight needs to happen as soon as possible.

Michael Chandler supports Conor McGregor’s December date despite Dana White’s refusal

Chandler thinks that Dana White is spreading misinformation about his slated fight with Conor McGregor. ‘Iron’, of course, was referring to the UFC CEO’s recent comments stating that ‘Mac’ will not fight in 2024, as he desperately wants. On the contrary and defying his boss, Chandler is much more optimistic about the fight happening in December. “Dana, as much as we love him, he has also said some things that were just absolutely false in press conferences and whatnot – which, that’s his job. Sometimes it’s his job to give you the exact information; his job is, sometimes, to give you misinformation,” Chandler told TMZ.

And Iron, who is already 38, and has virtually put his career on hold for the past two years, has good reasons to want to fight ‘Mac’ as quickly as possible. He has left a lot of money on the table by not fighting for the past two years, in hopes of hitting the jackpot and making the biggest payday of his career by far in a fight with the sport’s biggest-ever superstar. There is, of course, always the possibility of ‘Mac’ refusing to fight him or a more lucrative fight emerging, which makes even the UFC consider replacing Chandler. What are your thoughts on Chael Sonnen’s take on Chandler’s recent tweets?