The UFC is considering several of the best and biggest venues around the world for Conor McGregor’s return against Michael Chandler later in 2023.
Dana White is once again selling some wolf tickets to a UFC stadium show.
The UFC president is famously leery of bringing combat sports into big 50,000 person plus buildings. They’ve only done it five times in their existence: once in Toronto, once in Sweden, once in Brazil, and twice in Australia. Other than that, White has repeatedly said he prefers arenas.
But for Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler, maybe he’ll make an exception?
During an interview with Fanatics View, White was asked why he hadn’t done a show at “Jerry World” aka the 105,000 person AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
“They were asking me about the Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor fight and they’re asking me where it is. I said we don’t know yet, we’re kind of working that out,” White said. “To go to Dallas Texas Stadium you have to have the right fight. Conor and Chandler are doing The Ultimate Fighter this year and they’re coaching it. And it’s the first time it’s on ESPN the network, it was on ESPN+, which will make the fight even bigger than it would already be. And Dallas Texas Stadium is a possibility.”
Later in the Fanatics View video the interviewer pushed Dana to confirm AT&T Stadium as the location for McGregor vs. Chandler.
“Well, let’s just say this: they’re in the running,” White said. “They’re in the running for the fight.”
The other venues in the running?
“When you look at a fight of that magnitude, you gotta look at Madison Square Garden,” White said. “Obviously Vegas, which we could do the stadium there or do T-Mobile. You look at Dallas, Texas Stadium. You could also do a massive stadium in London.”
Of course, the UFC just had a chance to book a massive stadium in London for the Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman event and passed on that. You could argue they simply didn’t have the card to fill a stadium with several of their U.K. stars injured and unavailable. But there’s always a reason why the UFC doesn’t go to stadiums, and it’s usually pretty simple: because the UFC doesn’t like doing stadium shows.
The wild card in this equation is Conor McGregor, who tends to get what he wants when he digs in his heels. If “The Notorious” decides McGregor vs. Chandler is a stadium-sized show, he could force the event in that direction. Even then, we’d put our money on it happening at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas before Dallas, Texas.