Dana White gives disastrous update on Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler fight at UFC 303

Dana White has provided an update on the scheduled welterweight bout between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler.

McGregor, who has not fought since breaking his leg in July 2021, was all set to make his much-anticipated return to the Octagon on June 29 against Ultimate Fighter rival Chandler at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas.

However, the build-up to this one has been far-from-ideal. In fact, this month's press conference that was due to be held at the 3Arena in Dublin was surprisingly postponed at short notice.

Chandler only found out about the postponement on his way to the airport, while McGregor issued a statement addressing the situation and apologised.

Since then, speculation as to whether the bout would go ahead has been rife ahead of UFC 303.

But now, UFC president Dana White has confirmed that McGregor's comeback fight against Chandler has been cancelled, just two weeks before the event. You can see his statement in full below.

As you can see in the clip above, White announces that the new main event will be Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka for the light heavyweight title.

MMA journalist Ariel Helwani also posted an update regarding the fight.

"McGregor vs. Chandler will be re-booked later this year," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "The fight has been pushed because McGregor suffered an injury right before last week’s press conference in Dublin.

"Everyone involved - the UFC, McGregor, Paradigm - did everything in their power to save this. It didn’t look good initially, then it didn’t, then it did and finally it didn’t. The plug was officially pulled a little less than 48 hours ago.

"There weren’t a ton of options. Pereira x Prochazka was always a top choice, feelers were sent last week, but there were hurdles: mainly, Pereira is in Australia on a seminar tour and is getting over a couple broken toes. But he stepped up. Again. Prochazka was in right away."

So there we have it. As expected, McGregor has suffered an injury ahead of fight week.

Image credit: Getty

On Thursday, the Irishman appeared to hint at an injury as he shared an old interview of himself talking about movement on his Instagram story.

In the clip, he says: "I think the more resistance you train with, the less movement and the more injury. But the less resistance you train with, the more movement and the less injury."

The good news is McGregor vs Chandler will be rescheduled for later this year, with a date in August or September being mentioned.