Conor McGregor has been teasing a return for what seems like forever. In reality, it’s been merely a couple years.
But on New Year’s Eve, McGregor dropped a bombshell when he said his long-promised post-“TUF 31” fight against opposing coach Michael Chandler will take place June 29 at the UFC’s pay-per-view to close out International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
That McGregor announced he’s fighting Chandler after months of publicly casting doubt on whether it would happen, or if he’d return against someone else, was not the surprise. The newsflash moment was when McGgregor said the fight will take place at middleweight.
McGregor won the UFC’s featherweight title in 2015. He won the lightweight belt less than a year later. He never defended either and had both stripped for failure to put the titles on the line. In July 2021, McGregor broke his leg in a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier and has been on the shelf ever since.
McGregor has fought at welterweight in the UFC with wins over Donald Cerrone and Nate Diaz. But he’s never fought at middleweight. Chandler is a two-time Bellator lightweight champion, and he’s fought in that division for more than 13 years and never higher than 170.
Will the UFC really put that fight forward at 185 pounds, even though Chandler is trying to stay in title contention at 155. Or is McGregor bringing out some gamesmanship early in the process?
That’s what we asked our “Spinning Back Clique” panel of Brian “Goze” Garcia, Mike Bohn and Danny Segura, who tackled the topic with host “Gorgeous” George Garcia.
Check out their conversation above, and don’t miss this week’s full episode below.
