Michael Chandler is imploring Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) to get creative for his long-awaited scrap with Conor McGregor at UFC 303 on June 29, 2024.
It took some time, but we finally got to an official announcement for the match up between The Ultimate Fighter 31 (TUF) coaches and perennial Lightweight contenders. The build up has left the always exciting Chandler sidelined for over one full year and kept all involved pondering which weight class the fight would be at.
McGregor, 35, teased Middleweight at the start of 2024. Ultimately, the fight is set for the 170-pound Welterweight division, which will be the first time Chandler’s fought there since his professional debut in August 2009. The former three-time Bellator Lightweight champion recalls hearing rumblings of a potential new weight class to kick off with the McGregor fight. Although that isn’t happening, he believes a title of some sort is fitting.
“That was one of the rumors as well, the 165 belt, obviously, that has not happened,” Chandler told TheMacLife. “Even me in this position, man, I would not be surprised if that bout agreement comes over and it says for the 165 title. You never know because the UFC has to keep a lot of things secret. Even to us, right? I mean, you saw Conor broke the announcement again before the UFC did it. I’m sure the UFC said, ‘Hey, don’t do it because we’re gonna do it at the post-fight press conference.’ In typical Conor fashion.
“They want to hold a lot of the information,” he continued. “We knew the date. I knew what the weight class most likely was going to be, and then they sent it over. It should be for a belt, but we’ll see if we can’t make one up.”
The former UFC Featherweight and Lightweight titleholder, McGregor, has fought at Welterweight more recently than Chandler. The Irishman’s most recent win came in the division when he defeated Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone via a 40-second technical knockout at UFC 246 in January 2020. He’s since lost back-to-back Lightweight affair against Dustin Poirier, breaking his leg in the last at UFC 264 in July 2021 (watch highlights).
Chandler, 37, won’t change up his preparation too much for the weight change. That’s not to say he isn’t looking forward to not making as drastic of a cut as he’s grown accustomed to for essentially his whole 31-fight career (23-8).
“I think 170 is perfect,” Chandler said. “155 is not easy to make. So, fighting at 170 is gonna be kind of a perfect camp, honestly. I weigh about 190. Getting down to 170 is kind of gonna be easy compared to 155, obviously.
“I think I’ll compete phenomenally there,” he continued. “I’m still gonna do the exact same camp. I’m still gonna get my weight similar to where I would be at 155, I just won’t dehydrate myself at the end. So, I wanna stay big, I wanna stay strong, wanna stay explosive. So, I think 170 is gonna be perfect.”