Conor McGregor has spoken out for the first time since he withdrew from his UFC 303 headlining fight against Michael Chandler due to an injury.
“Very tough to be ruled out of my scheduled return bout,” McGregor wrote on Instagram. “I picked up an injury prior to the [scheduled news conference June 3] that required more time to heal than was available to me.
“The decision to postpone the fight was not made lightly, but one made in consultation with my doctors, the UFC, and my team.
“My fans and opponent deserve me at my best for this fight and we will get there! Thank you for the messages of support, I am in good spirits and confident I’ll be back!”
Meanwhile, his rival Chandler has had little to say on the cancelation, simply stating, “Welp…back #onHiatus,” alongside a video of him pouring himself a drink of Hiatus tequila.
There’s no specifics at this stage on what McGregor’s injury issue actually is and whether it’s related to the broken leg he suffered three years ago that has kept him out of action since.
The fact that they didn’t just pull the plug on the fight as soon as the injury occurred suggests it’s possible it isn’t overly serious though, so perhaps there is still a chance that the fight will still happen later this year.
Meanwhile, UFC 303 now proceeds with an all-new short-notice main and co-main event pairing, with light-heavyweight champion Alex Pereira rematching Jiri Prochazka, while leading into that Brian Ortega will fight Diego Lopes.
