Michael Bisping thinks Conor McGregor may never return after pulling out of UFC 303.
An undisclosed injury forced McGregor (22-6 MMA, 10-4 UFC) out of his return fight vs. Michael Chandler (23-8 MMA, 2-3 UFC) June 29 at T-Mobile Arena, marking the first time McGregor has withdrawn from a fight in the UFC. The bout is expected to be rebooked later in the year.
Bisping heard that McGregor re-injured the same leg he broke in his TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021, which has kept him sidelined for years.
“I don’t know why I was kind of optimistic that this fight was still going to go ahead,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “I should have known, though. I was on a movie set last week and I was working with ‘Big’ John McCarthy, a man that is an absolute authority on mixed marital arts, and he told me in no uncertain terms this fight is not happening. He’s injured. He’s hurt himself. His leg, the leg that he broke, that snapped against Dustin Poirier – his titanium skin bone has failed. That’s what ‘Big’ John said. I thought he was wrong. I thought he was mistaken.”
Bisping says history has shown that fighters do not come back the same after breaking their leg in that manner, pointing to Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman as examples.
“The big question is, is that it? Will McGregor ever fight again,” Bisping said. “Now of course they’re going to move Michael Chandler vs. Conor McGregor to another date down the line. … He hurt himself this time. What’s to say he won’t hurt himself next time? What’s to say that he’ll ever be the same fighter again?
“Him competing against Dustin Poirier, when the leg snapped, might just be the last time that Conor McGregor ever steps foot inside an octagon. Fighters aren’t the same. Anderson Silva came back from the leg break – he wasn’t the same. Chris Weidman, he wasn’t the same. Chris Weidman still has problems now. So it might be the last time.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 303.
