21 September 2023 , 08:30
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Conor McGregor's December UFC comeback is now officially off as promotional CEO Dana White confirmed that the event earmarked for his return will be headlined by a different fight.
McGregor is currently expected to face Michael Chandler in his first fight since July of 2021, but it won't be at UFC 296 in December after White confirmed that show will have two world title bouts as main and co-main event. Leon Edwards will defend his welterweight title against Colby Covington above Brandon Royval's flyweight title challenge against Alexandre Pantoja.
The Irishman has been training regularly and posting photos with videos to social media, including a recent set of sparring sessions against top welterweight Ian Garry. But it appears that he won't be making his highly-anticipated return before the end of the year, with January now the more likely month for his fight with Chandler.
McGregor and Chandler coached against each other on The Ultimate Fighter this year, with the American taking a massive seven wins to his rival's one in the opening stages. But after the Irishman's long-time SBG Ireland teammate Brad Katona swapped to his side, they ended up each winning one final apiece.
White also announced the co-headliner for UFC 295 on November 11 at Madison Square Garden which is headlined by Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic during his breaking news video. Jiri Prochazka will look to reclaim his light-heavyweight world title when he faces former middleweight champion Alex Pereira in New York.
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It now remains to be seen when, if at all, McGregor will be making his comeback. He was last out at UFC 264 in Las Vegas on July 10, when he suffered a nasty broken leg in his trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier that cost him years of his career as well as the series, but he has been back full-contact sparring for over a year now with no return date in sight.
McGregor has had a torrid time with injuries and other issues since his famous 2017 boxing crossover with Floyd Mayweather. He lost his 2018 octagon return against Khabib Nurmagomedov before another absence of more than a year after which he knocked out Donald 'Cowboy' Cerrone within a minute in January 2020.
But the onset of the coronavirus made a second fight that year untenable and it was another year before he rematched Poirier at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi. He quickly turned around for a trilogy that July, but his broken leg has meant he missed the entirety of 2022 and 2023.