Michael Chandler has waited nearly two years to score his “Red Panty Night” against UFC superstar Conor McGregor, so if the former Bellator MMA champion needed to drown his recent sorrows with a glass full of tequila nobody should be judging.
On Thursday, news finally broke that a recent injury to McGregor would knock him out of his scheduled comeback fight against Chandler at UFC 303 later this month. The two fighters have been aligned to meet inside of the Octagon for quite some time so seeing their matchup dissolve with two weeks left on the clock was heartbreaking to watch. This especially goes for Chandler, who has been physically able to fight over the past 18 months only to sit out and wait for “Notorious.”
Instead of finding a potential replacement for Chandler, UFC officials decided to book Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka 2 as UFC 303’s new main event and plan on rescheduling McGregor vs. Chandler sometime later this year. It’s an unfortunate series of events, but it’s all just part of the business.
Chandler, who has remained positive (and extremely patient) throughout this entire ordeal, finally showed some signs of frustration Friday night when he took to social media to deliver a brief message to his fans. Chandler didn’t write much, but he poured quite a bit of his signature tequila into a glass during an accompanying video.
“Welp… back #onhiatus,” wrote Chandler via Instagram (shown above).
It’s unknown at this time how long McGregor will be sidelined for, but early reports suggest the former UFC double champ will be ready to return in a matter of months. Chandler seems more than ready to wait things out even longer as he tries to hold onto the biggest matchup in combat sports.