Former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya is not advising Michael Chandler to move on completely from Conor McGregor, but merely take a short detour.
Chandler will no longer face McGregor in the main event of UFC 303 on June 29 after the latter suffered an undisclosed injury. While there’s hope the bout may get re-booked for later this year, no guarantees have been made. So Adesanya—who challenges Dricus du Plessis for the middleweight title in the main event of UFC 305 on Aug. 17—suggests Chandler get back in the octagon to face a different opponent, because the former Bellator champ can have his cake and eat it, too.
“I think that fight is going to happen, regardless,” Adesanya said on his YouTube channel. “Chandler should just take a fight [for the time being], and that’s even better for him — win or lose — because he’ll still get more reps. Take a fight, regardless. That Conor fight is always going to be there because they both faced each other [as coaches] on [The Ultimate Fighter]. Beef, all that other stuff sprinkled all over it.
“So yeah, that already is there. So just take another fight I think. Yeah.”
UFC CEO Dana White has said that if Chandler wants to compete before McGregor is ready to return from the injury, he’ll make it happen. “Iron” seems steadfast on wanting to wait for McGregor since he’s been pot-committed ever since they coached TUF 32 against one another in 2023. Chandler hasn’t competed since suffering a submission loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 281 in November 2022.
It’s been an even longer layoff for McGregor, as he was set to return for the first time in just under three years after suffering a nasty leg injury in his UFC 264 TKO loss to Poirier in July 2021.
