Michael Chandler glad he waited for UFC to book Conor McGregor fight

Michael Chandler.

Though he had to wait more than a year to get his chance to fight arguably the biggest star in the UFC, Michael Chandler is taking a victory lap after his patience paid off with an official bout agreement to face the former two-division champion later this summer.

In a video posted on his Instagram page, Chandler disclosed that he was never as worried as most fans were that a fight with McGregor was never going to happen, hinting the UFC made him feel more at ease that the fight contract was eventually going to get signed.

“I never really doubted it as much as you guys did,” Chandler said. “I had a lot more reassurances behind the scenes than you guys knew about. I just knew it was going to take time. … The hard work eventually pays off, you just have to still be standing there when it does. And it’s not that people don’t do the right things, it’s that they don’t do the right things for long enough.”

The McGregor-Chandler grudge match, which will take place at welterweight (170 pounds), has been more than a year in the making.

The two were opposing coaches on Season 31 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” which started filming in February of last year and was supposed to culminate with the two fighting one another after the show concluded on Aug. 15.

The UFC targeted a few other dates at the end of 2023 to make the fight work but nothing ever materialized. Now, McGregor will make his Octagon return after a near-three-year layoff after battling back from a broken leg.

Chandler (23-8) and McGregor (22-6) will be the main event of the UFC 303 card on June 29 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas as part of International Fight Week. As of now, it’s also the only fight booked for the card.

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