UFC 303 will take place in the United States on the night of June 29-30. In the main event of the evening, the organization’s light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira will defend his belt against Jiri Prochazka. This will be the second fight between the fighters: in November last year, Pereira knocked out Jiri and became the new king of the division.
UFC 303 Online Streaming:
Live
UFC 303: Revenge of the Champion and Samurai, battle of the brightest welterweights. LIVE
UFC 303 was supposed to be one of the most anticipated events of the year. And, of course, this is not a rematch between Pereira and Prochaska, with all due respect to these fighters. Dana White announced at the UFC 300 press conference that UFC 303 will be headlined by Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler. News of the Irishman’s return thrilled the public, millions of fans and one Michael Chandler were absolutely delighted to see Notorious return to action.
However, as the tournament approached, Conor spent more time in the bar than in the gym: yes, the Irishman hadn’t been on a different regime before, but it still didn’t look like McGregor was ready for his legendary comeback three years later. . in a couple of months. Rumors spread about the cancellation of the fight between Conor and Chandler, and then the rumors were confirmed: McGregor broke his toe and left the fight.
The saga of Conor’s comeback drags on indefinitely and gives the impression that it will end in nothing. The Irishman enjoys life outside of combat, and despite constantly announcing his return, it seems that he himself no longer believes in it. The fight with Chandler was announced a year ago, and for a year now Conor has still not solved his problems. More precisely, he decided, but new ones have been added: he broke his finger.
For this, by the way, he has already received a lot of criticism: Rafael dos Anjos recalled that his fight with the Irishman did not take place at the same time because the Brazilian had a broken leg, not a finger. Islam Makhachev also reacted ironically to the nature of McGregor’s injury.
Conor McGregor
Photo: Getty Images
By the way, many fighters claim that they break their toes while preparing for a fight, but they still go out to fight. For example, Alex Pereira himself said that before the fight with Jamal Hill he received exactly the same injury, but he did not leave the fight and then completely knocked out Hill in the first round. But Conor chose to heal his injury. The Irishman makes pompous speeches about how he wants to face his comeback in better shape and that he is tremendously worried about the fact that the fight never took place.
“I would be lying if I said it didn’t hurt to see fight week go by without me. This is a deep pain in my heart. Thank you for the messages of support and encouragement, my colleagues and fans,” Conor wrote on his social media page.
Before UFC 303 there were a large number of replacements:
Fake Conor instead of the real one and many substitutions. What about UFC 303?
But all the Irishman’s actions and actions indicate otherwise. Conor had a whole year to make his comeback, but he still fights only on the Internet. McGregor has everything to get a title shot very quickly – after all, Conor is still the brightest star in MMA. But it seems that behind the big name there is no longer a sporting component. The McGregor who got into everyone’s heads and then ripped those heads off is a thing of the past. Now there is a rich and successful businessman who does not need to fight. And Conor can claim all he wants that his return will be the greatest comeback in history, but only Michael Chandler, who buried his career with a failed fight for money, seems to believe it.
At the UFC 303 press conference, Dana White was asked if Conor could return in August, September or October, to which the UFC boss responded that neither option was possible. That is to say, we probably won’t see McGregor in the cage until the end of the year. And the longer the downtime, the less likely Conor will return to MMA. It seems that the Irishman is simply leading everyone by the nose with constant tournament announcements, while he himself has long resigned himself to enjoying his well-deserved retirement from it.
