Conor McGregor didn’t feel the need to kick Michael Chandler when he was down.
After being matched up together for the better part of two years, Chandler eventually moved on from his pairing with McGregor when delays in their fight just became untenable. Chandler ended up facing Charles Oliveira in a rematch in the UFC 309 co-main event but things didn’t go his way.
Chandler ultimately lost a fairly one-sided decision outside of a late comeback where he nearly pulled off the upset but in the end, he still suffered his second straight defeat while falling to 1-4 in his past five fights. For his part, McGregor still praised Chandler after his latest performance despite coming up short against Oliveira.
“Cut Michael Chandler! Just kidding,” McGregor wrote and later deleted from Twitter. “Good fight. Mad little fellow is Michael. I like em’!”
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Despite his loss, Chandler wasted no time reigniting the rivalry with McGregor as he sent a fiery message to the Irish superstar about settling their unfinished business in the near future.
“Conor and I need to finish The Ultimate Fighter 31 — if he comes back,” Chandler said on the UFC 309 post-fight show. “He either needs to retire and just sail off into the sunset or he needs to come back. So we’ll see what happens.”
McGregor hasn’t fought since 2021 when he suffered a gruesome broken leg in his trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier. He was originally scheduled to return in June with the fight booked against Chandler but broke his pinky toe in training and was forced off the card.
Since then, UFC CEO Dana White has repeatedly stated that McGregor plans to return but the latest update pushed his comeback to sometime in late 2025.
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