Dana White is waiting for Conor McGregor just like the rest of us.
The drama surrounding McGregor’s will-he-won’t-he status for UFC 303 came to an end this past week, when it was officially announced that an injury has forced the former two-division champion out of his highly anticipated grudge match against Michael Chandler. McGregor vs. Chandler was set to headline the June 29 pay-per-view in Las Vegas, but doubts began to rise around McGregor’s availability when he cancelled a June 3 press conference in Dublin, Ireland, that was scheduled to promote the event.
In an interview with Sports Business Journal, White was asked for his reaction to McGregor’s withdrawal.
“It’s the business, man,” White said. “This is the way it goes. And from here on I’m not going to talk about it until when he’s healed and he’s right. Then we’ll look at the landscape and see what we can figure out.”
McGregor was to return from a lengthy hiatus, much of which was spent recovering from a broken leg that he suffered in his most recent bout against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021. It is not yet known if McGregor’s withdrawal from UFC 303 is related to any past injuries or if it is a new issue.
Following the news that McGregor and Chandler will not be competing on June 29, UFC quickly announced that the new main event is a rematch between light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira and Jiri Prochazka. A featherweight contender bout between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes has also been added to bolster the card, and serve as the new co-main event with Jamahal Hill pulling out of a fight with Carlos Ulberg. (Ulberg remains on the card in a new matchup with veteran Anthony Smith.)
If that wasn’t enough chaos for the matchmakers, they also had to find a new opponent for Robert Whittaker, who was supposed to fight Khamzat Chimaev this Saturday at UFC Saudi Arabia. Chimaev withdrew due to an illness, so lesser-known middleweight contender Ikram Aliskerov was pulled from UFC Vegas 93 this past weekend to take on Whittaker.
Overall, White couldn’t be more pleased with how his team has played the cards they’ve been dealt.
“It’s been interesting because we had to switch the Saudi main event, which is next weekend, you know what I mean?” White said. “It’s f****** days away, so for us to put in this guy [Ikram Aliskerov] who is 15-1 [is a good outcome], he’s Muslim and his only loss is to Khamzat Chimaev, and everyone in the division said no to fighting him except Robert Whittaker. … I’m very happy [with the quality of the replacement fights].”
