Israel Adesanya already has Conor McGregor’s next fight picked out, and he says McGregor owes it.
McGregor wants one more UFC bout after his UFC 329 injury. Adesanya says it can only be Michael Chandler. He made the case on the Precision podcast with Demetrious Johnson.
I say, if he does decide to come back later on, Chandler would be the only fight that makes sense.
To Adesanya, it’s a debt. McGregor kept Chandler waiting for years.
He kind of owes Chandler that fight.
The history is right there. The two coached opposite each other on Season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter and were booked to headline UFC 303 in June 2024, until a toe injury forced McGregor out. Chandler chased the money fight for two to three years and went roughly two years without competing while he waited. Settling that score, Adesanya says, is how McGregor should close the book on his UFC run.
McGregor’s last two outings before the layoff were both losses to Dustin Poirier: a second-round knockout at UFC 257 in January 2021 and the broken-leg stoppage in their UFC 264 rematch that July.
