McGregor Claims Victory Over Chandler After TUF 31 Finals

Despite going 0-8 in the quarter-finals, ‘The Notorious’ has declared Team McGregor the winners of latest season of The Ultimate Fighter.

The Ultimate Fighter: Team McGregor vs. Team Chandler wrapped its season up on Saturday night at UFC 292 in Boston. Both the lightweight and bantamweight tournament finals were held during the prelims on ESPN, with Kurt Holobaugh and Brad Katona winning their brackets respectively.

Katona trains out of SBG Ireland, same as McGregor. For the final he was cornered by McGregor’s head coach John Kavanagh. And for a while on The Ultimate Fighter 31, he repped Team McGregor. But that was only after Team Chandler’s veterans — one of whom was Katona — swept Team McGregor’s newcomers 8-0 in the quarter-finals. Katona was then swapped to Team McGregor so “The Notorious” wasn’t left completely out of the competition.

With that in mind, it’s somewhat amusing to see Conor’s take on which team really won The Ultimate Fighter.

“And just like that, Team McGregor and SBG Ireland wins The Ultimate Fighter!” McGregor tweeted. “Excellent performance Brad Katona, now the Champ Champ of The Ultimate Fighter! Incredible! Team and gym full of double champions.”

McGregor also threw some trash talk Kurt Holobaugh’s way. Holobaugh had beaten Lee Hammond, one of Conor’s hand-picked TUF fighters, in the quarter-finals via second round submission.

“Lee Hammond was cruise sailing to victory over Hobo,” McGregor wrote in another tweet. “It was so easy it was too f—ing easy. We call for the rematch now, Dana White. Lee was the real star of the UFC LW contestants and kicked and punched Kurt around easily. Rematch time! Well done Team SBG, Team McGregor.”

McGregor also retweeted his coach John Kavanagh’s assessment of the season.

“Team Chandler wins 155 trophy, Team McGregor wins 135 trophy,” Kavanaugh declared. “The only other competition was the coaches challenge which Conor McGregor won. So 2-1 to Team McGregor, congratulations Conor winning this season of The Ultimate Fighter!”

Internet bluster aside, it cannot be denied that Team Chandler dominated The Ultimate Fighter. You can mention reasons for this that both defend and damn Team McGregor’s performance. Conor was shackled by a dumb team concept that saddled him with newcomers against hardened veterans. He also skipped out on almost every morning training session. Whatever. No one really cares that much. But don’t p— on us and say it’s raining.

Fortunately, there’s a very simple way for McGregor and Chandler to sort out bragging rights for TUF 31: a real fight. The two are expected to fight sometime soon, although Conor’s erratic behavior and refusal to enter the USADA drug testing pool is calling that bout into question. Following UFC 292, Dana White simply said he had no update on the match-up. McGregor promised he’d break Chandler’s head, but all this big social media talk is getting cheap without action to back it up.