{"id":800628,"date":"2026-07-14T05:05:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800628\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T05:05:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:05:16","slug":"israel-adesanya-explains-why-michael-chandler-deserves-to-be-conor-mcgregors-first-opponent-when-the-ufc-icon-returns-from-his-injury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800628\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya explains why Michael Chandler “deserves” to be Conor McGregor’s first opponent when the UFC icon returns from his injury"},"content":{"rendered":"

Israel Adesanya has made a case for Michael Chandler to be Conor McGregor’s first fight back after the Irishman’s UFC 329 injury debacle. <\/p>\n

Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor<\/a> were long involved in a feud that many expected would culminate in an MMA fight between them in the UFC<\/a>‘s famed octagon.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the dream matchup, which many fans envisioned as a likely barnburner, didn’t come to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

McGregor’s fellow combat sports megastar Israel Adesanya has now suggested that the aforementioned feud wouldn’t be for naught. “The Last Stylebender” has called for McGregor to fight Chandler next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler<\/a> — “The Notorious” returned against Max Holloway<\/a> rather than “Iron”<\/p>\n

Conor McGregor’s most recent octagon appearance witnessed him suffer a leg injury in his rematch against Max Holloway at UFC 329 on July 11.<\/p>\n

It led to McGregor’s being unable to keep fighting and losing the much-awaited welterweight showdown via TKO in a little over a minute into the very first round.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The Notorious” one had defeated Holloway by way of unanimous decision in their first encounter, which was a featherweight matchup back when they were rising stars in 2013.<\/p>\n

Holloway has called for a trilogy fight against McGregor, but the latter is\u00a0reportedly out with a right knee injury<\/a>. The timeline of the 37-year-old Irishman’s return remains unclear for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, many fans have pointed out that “Iron” Michael Chandler was to be McGregor’s comeback opponent back in 2024. His UFC 329 fight was his first since suffering a left leg injury against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021.<\/p>\n

However, McGregor did memorably coach Season 31 of the UFC’s TUF (The Ultimate Fighter) reality show opposite longtime UFC lightweight contender Michael Chandler in 2023.<\/p>\n

They were booked to clash at welterweight, in the UFC 303 headliner in June 2024, but a toe injury ruled McGregor out. The McGregor vs. Chandler fight was postponed and eventually scrapped.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Israel Adesanya underlines why Michael Chandler deserves to be Conor McGregor’s next opponent<\/p>\n

On the Precision podcast, hosted by former UFC flyweight champion Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson and former UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, the duo addressed Conor McGregor’s UFC 329 injury.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson, who’s a retired MMA great, seemed to concur with Adesanya that McGregor’s return against Holloway was a tough comeback fight after the Irishman’s five-year layoff.<\/p>\n

Moreover, “Izzy” alluded to the backstory that serves as the perfect foundation for a McGregor vs. Chandler fight next.<\/p>\n

Chandler, a 40-year-old veteran American MMA star, suffered a first-round TKO loss against Mauricio Ruffy in their lightweight matchup at UFC Freedom 250 last month.<\/p>\n

Also, Chandler later signaled that he’s moving up to welterweight. He’s currently on a four-fight losing streak, whereas McGregor is on a three-fight losing streak.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Israel Adesanya, who himself made waves with a major change<\/a> recently, notably indicated that Chandler is the only matchup that makes sense for McGregor, provided the latter chooses to return to the octagon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adesanya stated, “I say, I mean, if he (Conor McGregor) does decide to come back later on, (Michael) Chandler would be the only fight that makes sense. ‘Cause they — he kind of owes Chandler that fight. He honeyd**ked him for like, two, three years while Chandler was waiting for the big money fight.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

For context, a number of fans often criticize Chandler for having refrained from competing in the octagon from late 2022 to late 2024, a time period when his potential fight against McGregor was expected to come to fruition but didn’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adesanya added, “So now, after The Ultimate Fighter, after all those times, it’d be good for them to kind of settle the score. ‘Cause they even have a little bit of — not beef — but they have, they’ve got some heat there. Some heat there. So that would be the fight I think he should come back to.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Watch Israel Adesanya and Demetrious Johnson discuss Conor McGregor’s potential next fight and more below (*comments at the 9:50-minute mark of the video):\u00a0<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel Adesanya has made a case for Michael Chandler to be Conor McGregor’s first fight back after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800629,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,639,641,43061,11197,638,82,640,250163],"class_list":["post-800628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-conor-mcgregor","tag-fighting","tag-israel-adesanya","tag-michael-chandler","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-329-mcgregor-vs-holloway-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800628","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=800628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800628\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}