{"id":156952,"date":"2025-09-20T11:41:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T11:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/156952\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T11:41:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T11:41:08","slug":"conor-mcgregor-confirms-opponent-for-ufc-white-house-comeback-fight-after-four-year-hiatus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/156952\/","title":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor confirms opponent for UFC White House comeback fight after four-year hiatus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conor McGregor claims he will end his four-year hiatus by fighting Michael Chandler on the unprecedented UFC White House card.<\/p>\n

The Irishman hasn’t competed inside the Octagon since suffering a broken leg during his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier<\/a> in July 2021.<\/p>\n

\"McGregor<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McGregor has been inactive since his defeat to Poirier four years agoCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

However, that is expected to change next June when the UFC<\/a> hosts a historic card at the President’s official residence to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States.<\/p>\n

Dana White<\/a> has named McGregor the frontrunner to headline the bill<\/a>, although the UFC president has repeatedly stated that he won’t be putting together any fights until February.<\/p>\n

Despite this, McGregor is insistent that he will be squaring off with his long-time rival, Chandler.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Mac is excited to get back for sure,” McGregor told Fox&Friends.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m on [the White House card]. This is me.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I\u2019m fighting] Michael Chandler<\/a>. Michael Chandler and myself have done the show\u00a0The Ultimate Fighter,\u00a0we\u2019ve had a good back and forth. He\u2019s a good, tough guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler’s history?<\/p>\n

Chandler and McGregor’s history goes all the way back to 2023, when they squared off as coaches on Season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter.<\/p>\n

The UFC pitted them against each other with a view to making a fight.<\/p>\n

After months of uncertainty due to various issues between McGregor, the UFC, USADA and\u00a0White, a fight was eventually booked for last June at UFC 303.<\/p>\n

Two weeks before the event, disaster struck when McGregor broke his toe in sparring.<\/p>\n

\"Conor<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McGregor and Chandler were supposed to fight each other last JuneCredit: GETTY<\/p>\n

It led to the bout being cancelled, while the UFC has yet to officially reschedule the clash.<\/p>\n

Chandler has fought twice since then, losing to Charles Oliveira<\/a> last November and Paddy Pimblett<\/a> in April.<\/p>\n

The former Bellator lightweight champion has always held out hope that he will finally get his hands on McGregor, and recently admitted that ‘in his heart of hearts’ he is fighting ‘Notorious’ at the White House.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he thinks McGregor will fight again during an interview with MMA Fighting, Chandler replied: \u201cI think we\u2019re closer now than we ever have been.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said if you\u2019re a betting man, don\u2019t put money on him necessarily coming back, but now this changes things a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my heart of hearts, I think I\u2019m fighting Conor McGregor<\/a> at the White House and that sure does make a ton of sense for a multitude of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"McGregor<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McGregor is the frontrunner to headline the event on the White House lawnCredit: Getty<\/p>\n

McGregor recently re-entered the UFC drug testing pool<\/a> and has been in constant communication with White over a return on the White House lawn.<\/p>\n

While the former dual-weight UFC champion is an unpredictable character, all indications are that he is dead serious about fighting next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conor McGregor claims he will end his four-year hiatus by fighting Michael Chandler on the unprecedented UFC White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,7337,639,10359,32321,641,11197,638,10325,82,25831,702,16860,21519,14052],"class_list":["post-156952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-comeback","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-dana-white","tag-date","tag-fighting","tag-michael-chandler","tag-mma","tag-mma-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc-white-house","tag-ufc-news","tag-when","tag-where","tag-who"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}