Though an injury caused Conor McGregor to drop out of his bout with Michael Chandler at UFC 303, the former Featherweight and Lightweight champion promised Saturday he will be fully healthy the next time he steps into the cage.
With McGregor vs. Chandler originally set to take place on June 29, McGregor could no longer participate due to a broken toe suffered during training.
Combat sports reporter Ariel Helwani of MMAFighting reported June 13 the plan is to re-book McGregor vs. Chandler later this year, but a new date for the fight has not officially been announced.
At Saturday’s Bellator event in Dublin, with Chandler present, McGregor took to the mic after Arlene Blencowe defeated Sinead Kavanagh to assure fans he’d be in tip-top shape for the match.
“I’m walking there 100 per cent Conor McGregor, injury free, perfection is on the menu,” McGregor said at the Bellator event.
McGregor reiterated that the injury was due to a lapse in concentration, but he’s now directed his attention to his training even more and that might be exactly what he needs.
“I had a little lapse of concentration, I had to reschedule the bout,” said McGregor. “I’m a little upset about that, but it’s keeping me dialled in, it’s keeping me focused … that’s not bad for me.”
In a separate interview on Saturday with SevereMMA, McGregor called the broken toe both a “nuisance” and a “wake-up call,” and that he’d been in a “dark place” after sustaining the injury but he’s working his way out of it.
McGregor wasn’t prepared to make the walk compromised, as he has done before, and wanted to make sure he’d be fully ready to go for his next bout.
“I’m onwards towards the new date and take my lesson’s learned. It was a lapse in concentration. If I was any one of these other little bums that can’t move, that have no footwork and don’t rely on their skills, then I would be okay,” McGregor said at Bellator.
“And I’ve done it before. I’ve made the walk a multitude of times under those circumstances and given these bums an advantage over me that they don’t even deserve. So now I’m dialling it in.”
In the SevereMMA interview, McGregor said when he’d like the bout to be rescheduled.
“August. September,” McGregor said. “I’m in recovery mode, it’s three weeks to the day, (the injury) happened three weeks ago to the day and I’m still here running around in the slippers … but I can’t get into a shoe yet.”
The 35-year-old has not fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July of 2021. His only win since 2016 was a 2020 TKO of Donald Cerrone.
Chandler, 38, has not fought since being submitted by Poirier at UFC 281 in 2022.