McGregor vs Chandler: who’s the fighter that would step in to replace ‘The Notorious’ if needed?

The UFC has been quite trendy over the last few hours, especially after the Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler press conference’s cancelation.

The pre-fight event was expected to happen in Dublin on Monday, but the biggest mixed martial arts promotion released a statement saying the presser was being canceled without explaining the reasons.

After the fight was repeatedly postponed in the past after the USADA required McGregor to reenter their testing pool before considering him able to fight again, as the former simultaneous double champ had been on the sidelines for a long time after breaking his leg against Dustin Poirier in July 2021.

After UFC 300 and the UFC and the USADA partying ways, the organization president Dana White confirmed that ‘The Notorious’ would make his return to the octagon to take on Chandler on June 29 at UFC 303.

McGregor recently apologized for the unexpected cancelation and said that the reason for the press conference postponement was because of “obstacles outside of our control”. After that, fans started speculating about the possibility of McGregor being injured and not ready to take on the Nashville native.

Which UFC fighter could replace McGregor and fight Chandler?

While everything is on stand-by and anything could happen in the next hours or days, rumor has it that the fight could go on without the Dublin fighter.

But who could be the best possible replacement if McGregor can’t step into the octagon to face Chandler? While many fighters would probably be interested in that clash, the name that stands out among them is Alexander Volkanovski.

The former featherweight king said during a recent interview with Submission Radio that although he’s mainly focused on a potential rematch with Ilia Topuria, he would be more than interested in taking on the American.

“I reckon, 100 percent,” Volkanovski admitted when asked if he’d step in on short notice at UFC 303.

“As long as it’s a big fight. I wouldn’t just take any fight. Like you said, that’s a big deal, save the day as well. I feel like I love just saving the day... Obviously, get paid well for it as well. But you never know.”, he added.

“I was just mucking about with that. There’s probably nothing even happening. It’s probably just a couple of little hiccups and everyone’s blowing it out of proportion,” Volkanovski continued. “But I will just have fun and throw the name out there”, Volk explained.

Volkanovski knows what it feels like to get into the cage in less than two weeks’ notice, as he faced Islam Makhachev in a rematch fight for the Russian’s lightweight belt at UFC 284. However, the Aussie was stopped in the first round after being hit by a nasty head kick.