Conor McGregor takes shot at Michael Chandler while saying he'll 'fight anyone'
Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler are in a will they or won’t they mode and there’s no solution in sight.
The two coaches of The Ultimate Fighter were supposed to fight upon the conclusion of the latest season, but McGregor is not in the USADA testing pool, nor has there been any update regarding a fight against Chandler.
McGregor meanwhile called out Justin Gaethje and then claimed he’ll fight anyone while taking a shot at Chandler.
“I’ll do it if they want, no prob,” McGregor wrote in a now-deleted Tweet. “I don’t think they want him no more tho. There’s loads of juicy fights around and my return date is my return date. I never gave a (expletive) about who it was. Ever. I’ll fight anyone. I’ll even fly them to me, ask Malinaggi. Flown in and bet around.”
Essentially, McGregor said the UFC would rather see McGregor fight someone else than Chandler due to the interest.
As of Tuesday, Chandler dominated McGregor’s team in The Ultimate Fighter to this point in the semifinals, including a 7-1 record in the quarterfinals.
After McGregor made his now-deleted claim on Twitter, Chandler responded to MMA Junkie’s screenshot of the statement.
“This dude… I remember when his words held an immense amount of weight,” Chandler wrote on Twitter in response. “Just tell the truth.”
Since the lightweight title win, McGregor is 1-3 in the UFC over the course of seven years. He lost a title fight to Khabib Nurmagomedov, knocked out Donald Cerrone in a welterweight bout and lost two fights to Dustin Poirier in 2021.
“A lot of people are interested when it’s going to happen,” Chandler said in July. “When’s Conor coming back? When’s our fight going to happen, now that we’re building it with The Ultimate Fighter (and) all that kind of stuff. So I understand. I understand people’s eagerness to get the answers.
“Historically, the coaches of The Ultimate Fighter have never not fought. And I don’t think Conor would ever want to delve into his legacy being tarnished by him coming back and not (fighting).”
McGregor is a former two-weight champion in the promotion but only fought four times since November 12, 2016. He won his second belt over Eddie Alvarez and became the first to hold two belts at once.
Chandler is 23-8 in his MMA career and 2-3 in the UFC after he came over from Bellator. He is the former Bellator Lightweight Champion and did fight for the UFC belt, but lost to Charles Oliveira in May of 2021.