Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler: ‘There’s still lots of work to do,’ says Dana White

A fight between the pair has been announced, but no date, location or weight class is official yet

Dana White has admitted ‘there’s still a lot of work to do’ on a fight between Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler.

McGregor and Chandler are currently filming the new season of The Ultimate Fighter, the UFC’s reality television show, with the pair set to fight one another later this year.

However, no date, location or weight class is yet official.

Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday (9 March), UFC president White said: “We’re still working on that and figuring that out. There’s a lot of work to do on the Conor fight still.

“They’re going to fight. ‘When’ isn’t guaranteed – when, what weight class, what are these guys doing. Conor’s filming this season of The Ultimate Fighter with Chandler, but Conor’s still coming back from that shin break.

“There’s still a lot of questions and ifs, and we don’t have answers yet.”

White’s mention of McGregor’s ‘shin break’ was a reference to the broken leg that the Irishman suffered in his last fight – a TKO loss to Dustin Poirier in July 2021.

Meanwhile, Chandler also lost to Poirier last time out, suffering a submission defeat by his fellow American in November.

McGregor, 34, and Chandler, 36, are both 1-3 in their last four fights. Both have predominantly fought at lightweight, with Chandler having held the Bellator title three times and McGregor winning the UFC belt in 2016.

However, McGregor’s lightweight title win saw him become the UFC’s first ever dual-weight champion, with the Irishman having only fought at featherweight before collecting the gold at 155lbs.

McGregor has also competed at welterweight three times in the UFC – trading wins with Nate Diaz in 2016 before stopping Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds in 2020.

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