Michael Chandler is still hopeful of facing Conor McGregor but thinks it would be "foolish" to wait for the UFC star's return amid his uncertain fighting future.
Chandler was pushing for a fight with former two-weight UFC champion McGregor after the Irishman recently returned to full training following his leg break last year. His return to the octagon was put in question after seemingly announcing his retirement for the fourth time in six years, tweeting: "MMA, I’ll never forget you! Easy work".
McGregor was linked to fight Chandler in his UFC return, but the former UFC lightweight title challenger has moved on from the fight for now and will instead face McGregor's old rival Dustin Poirier at UFC 281 in November. Chandler admitted that part of his decision to face Poirier instead of McGregor was because of the Irishman's unclear return date.
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"If it was a guaranteed, 'this fight is definitely happening', I would have no problem waiting a couple of extra months, into January, February, even March of next year, but this is the sport of mixed martial arts. A lot changes every single day and you're also talking about the biggest combat sports icon on the planet," he told MMA Fighting.
"There's rumours out there of him fighting Floyd Mayweather, there's rumours of him never coming back, there's rumours of him coming back by the end of the year. We don't know when Conor's coming back. So with that amount of uncertainty it would be really foolish to hitch your wagon to that fight itself."
UFC president Dana White shut down rumours of McGregor rematching Mayweather following their illustrious 'money fight' in 2017. McGregor welcomed a fight with Chandler when praising his spectacular knockout against Tony Ferguson in May, but the former Bellator champion insisted his ultimate goal is becoming a UFC champion rather than fighting McGregor.
"Do I want that fight? Of course. Do I think the fight is going to happen eventually? Absolutely. My number one goal isn't to fight Conor, my number one goal is to be a UFC champion, be the number one guy on the planet. So I've got to get through somebody else in the top five, go and fight the winner of Charles vs Islam then probably be the champion in the first quarter of next year," Chandler continued.
