Chandler Claims McGregor ‘Trying To Wait Me Out’

Fight fans are still expecting Conor McGregor to make his return in 2024 against former Ultimate Fighter coaching counterpart, Michael Chandler, but anything can change at the drop of a dime when “Notorious” is involved.

As of now, McGregor is lining himself up to return to action early next year after spending more than two years on the sidelines. Chandler makes the most sense for McGregor’s return to fighting and seems like the betting favorite to score the next Red Panty Night. However, with McGregor’s comeback taking much longer than expected Chandler is unsure if “Notorious” actually still wants to fight him.

“I think right now he’s trying to wait me out,” Chandler recently told Steve-O. “I mean, because if you were him, would you want to wait as long as possible for the guy like me, who’s a real fighter, who wants to be in there, who wants to compete so that I say, ‘Screw it, I’m going to go fight someone else,’ and then he can go fight an easier fight, Nate Diaz. He can go fight an easier fight, Tony Ferguson. He can go find a much easier fight than fighting me.”

McGregor, who recently re-entered UFC’s drug testing program, bashed UFC last week over the promotion’s inability to book him a fight. So if McGregor is in fact stalling to land an easier fight than Chandler he’s doing a great job at hiding it.

In defense of Chandler’s comments, a trilogy bout between McGregor and Diaz would in fact be one of the biggest fights to make. Diaz is not currently under contract with the promotion, but UFC should be able to get a deal done if this is the fight they wanted to make. That doesn’t seem to be the case, though, as UFC president, Dana White, remains adamant that McGregor vs. Chandler will be next.

“It looks really bad on everyone’s part if Conor comes back and doesn’t fight me after ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’” Chandler said. “So, Conor can try to come back and act like he runs the show and say, ‘I want to fight this guy, I want to fight that guy,’ which if I was in his position, if I was his manager, I would be trying to do the same thing. Because fighting me is not the smartest fight.”

What do you think? Is McGregor purposely trying to dodge Chandler or is his return just taking this long?

Sound off!