Cue the Al Pacino from The Godfather Part III memes because just when you thought the nervous speculation surrounding Conor McGregor’s UFC 303 status had subsided, combat sports reporter Ariel Helwani goes and pulls the MMA community back into panic mode.
Helwani reported last week there was “great positivity” McGregor would fight Michael Chandler in Las Vegas on June 29 as scheduled despite a June 3 press conference in Ireland being cancelled on short notice, however on Tuesday he suggested “there seems to be pessimism all over again regarding the status of the 303 main event” and Wednesday afternoon went into further detail during The MMA Hour.
“The positivity I talked about exactly one week ago today is nowhere to be found,” Helwani said. “I would say this fight is very much in limbo. I would say it’s hanging on and I would say the UFC is working very, very hard right now to figure out a plan B. Now, the plan could be someone stepping in to fight Chandler; the plan C could be a whole new fight.”
While details are limited and being held extremely close to the chest, all indications are the issue or issues are stemming from the McGregor side.
The former two-weight champion has been occasionally releasing seemingly new sparring footage on his social media channels, which suggests he is healthy enough to train and spar. Helwani reported earlier this month that any speculation the press conference was called off due to illegal or salacious reasons such as performance-enhancing drug use or partying were off base.
The UFC has yet to give any official update on the status of the UFC 303 main event since the press conference cancellation more than a week ago, yet the organization did release a new promotional video this past weekend for the upcoming event set for T-Mobile Arena.
If you eliminate athletes on the UFC roster who’d be unavailable to compete at the event on roughly two weeks’ notice — such as champions and star fighters that have recently fought, or those with upcoming fights booked or in the works — it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly there is a dearth of marquee options for the UFC to hypothetically turn to as a replacement.
McGregor, 35, has not fought since breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July of 2021. His only win since 2016 was a 2020 TKO of Donald Cerrone.
Chandler, 38, has not fought since being submitted by Poirier at UFC 281 in 2022. He has been waiting on this McGregor matchup to come to fruition as opposed to agreeing to face a different opponent.
The pair of lightweights, who agreed to meet in a welterweight contest, coached opposite one another on a recent season of The Ultimate Fighter reality series, so their rivalry has been brewing for quite a while at this point.
Burns vs. Brady in works
In other UFC news, an intriguing welterweight matchup between two of the strongest grapplers at 170 pounds is in the works for a September main event.
Gilbert Burns vs. Sean Brady is being targeted for a Sept. 7 UFC Fight Night with verbal agreements in place, according to multiple reports.
Burns, a 37-year-old one-time title challenger, is coming off back-to-back losses to Belal Muhammad in 2023 and a knockout loss to Jack Della Maddalena in February.
Brady, 31, rebounded from a 2022 TKO loss to Muhammad by submitting Kelvin Gastelum this past December. Brady is 16-1 as a pro.
Stoltzfus will be out a while
Dustin Stoltzfus was on the receiving end of a Brunno Ferreira spinning elbow that resulted in Stoltzfus sustaining a facial fracture and nerve damage.
“There are only so many spinning elbows to the face even my big ol’ head can take,” the middleweight wrote on social media. “I’ve got a lot of healing to do. My face is fractured and I have some significant nerve damage. I don’t know when I’ll be back to training, let alone fighting. Thankfully, the great people at the @ufc have always taken good care of me. I went out there to put on a show, now it’s time to put me back together and see what’s next. Thank you all for the love, but I’ll probably be off socials for a while.”
Ferreira received a $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus.
