Conor McGregor suggested yesterday that it was the UFC who were going off the idea of him fighting Michael Chandler when he finally returns to the Octagon, but Dana White tells a different story.
“Definitely Chandler,” White replied when asked by a reporter about McGregor’s opponent.
“He likes to f*** with everybody. You know what I mean? Especially his opponent, or possible opponents.”
White also claimed that McGregor has indicated that he’s ready to step back into the Octagon.
“I talked to Conor, either yesterday or the day before, and yeah, he’s ready to fight,” White said. “I said, ‘Listen, get in shape and let’s figure this out.’”
Of course this is far from the first time that McGregor has said so, and it’s getting to the stage where talk is cheap and he now needs to back that up with action by enrolling in USADA’s drug-testing program.
However, even if he did so today it’d still be next year before he could compete due to the mandatory requirement for returning fighters to undergo testing for six months prior to fighting.
That being said, it wouldn’t be a complete surprise if the UFC somehow found a way to bend the rules in order get McGregor back earlier than that. There’s little they can do until McGregor actually commits to fighting again though.
