Conor McGregor is back!
UFC president Dana White announced that the Irishman and Michael Chandler will be ‘TUF’ coaches in The Ultimate Fighter and will meet at the end.
King Midas returns. Conor McGregor returns. The news was announced on social media today by UFC president Dana White, who confirmed the Irishman as one of the TUF coaches in season 31 of the reality show The Ultimate Fighter along with Michael Chandler. The Big Brother-style show will be aired on ESPN from 30 May until 15 August in which two teams of fighters will be pitted against each other. The series will climax with McGregor and Chandler fighting each other, with a date and location still to be determined.
McGregor has been UFC’s brightest star but hasn’t stepped inside an octagon since July 2021, when he suffered a gruesome fractured left tibia in in the first round against Dustin Poirier.
The controversial Irishman (22-6-0 record) was the first fighter to hold two championship belts, the featherweight and the lightweight, and took MMA to another dimension. But after several back and forths with retirement announcements and a lucrative boxing match including against Floyd Mayweather, his last four bouts have resulted in three defeats. The first against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018, then he defeated Donald Cerrone in 2020 and lost twice to Poirier in 2021.
Chandler (36 years old and 23-8-0 record) goes into the series on the beck of his defeat to Poirier last November. He was the lightweight champion in 2018.