Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler are opposing coaches on the current season of "The Ultimate Fighter" but a fight between the two remains unannounced. Expectations were that Chandler vs. McGregor would take place in 2023, but UFC president Dana White admits there are complications.
White remained optimistic when asked about the fight potentially falling through but conceded that booking a McGregor fight is easier said than done. After all, UFC can't apply the same financial leverage on McGregor -- a fighter who has achieved generational wealth -- as they do to the majority of their roster.
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"That's the business we're in. Anything is possible in this business... Anything is possible, you don't know," White told reporters at the UFC Fight Night post-fight press conference on Saturday. " You guys don't know this much of what goes on behind the scenes and how hard it is to put all these fights together.
"Conor called me a couple of days ago and loved the first episode of 'The Ultimate Fighter,' and said how happy he was to be a part of it. And I think being here and part of the environment and everything else, he felt it again and felt like he wants to get back and fight. The one thing you guys have to understand is this kid has so much money. It's like Khabib [Nurmagomedov] now. These guys got shit loads of money and it's hard to reel these guys back in and get them fired up to get in and fight."
More UFC news, rumors
- UFC is jetting back to France. The promotion announced on Monday its return to the Accor Arena in Paris, France -- the site of UFC's debut in the country last year. No fights have been announced for the upcoming show, which will take place on Sept. 2. France legalized the sport of mixed martial arts in 2020. The UFC's first visit to Paris last September was headlined by France's own Ciryl Gane against Tai Tuivasa.
- Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman is making a comeback. Weidman is set to take on Brad Tavares at UFC 292 in Boston on Aug. 19, according to Newsday and ESPN. It marks Weidman's first MMA fight in 28 months. Weidman has been out of action since suffering a horrific leg break against Uriah Hall at UFC 261 in 2020. Hall checked a leg kick that grotesquely fractured Weidman's tibia and fibula. It was a surreal case of deja vu after Anderson Silva infamously snapped his leg on a checked kick by Weidman in 2013. Tavares enters the fight off back-to-back losses to Bruno Silva and Dricus du Plessis.
