Ariel Helwani gives detailed timeline of the Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler cancellation (2024)

Well-respected MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani, has provided an in-depth timeline of the Conor McGregor vs Michael Chandler fight cancellation. Helwani has gone into detail about everything that happened between the cancellation of the Dublin press conference all the way to the official announcement from Dana White that the bout was finally called off.

Following the announcement that the former two-division champion will not be fighting at UFC 303, CEO Dana White touched on the fact that he will be adapting the way that he promotes the star. The Irishman has not fought since July 2021 at UFC 264, when he suffered a brutal leg injury against Dustin Poirier in the first round of the trilogy showdown.

As for Chandler, the former Bellator champion hasn't fought since also losing to Poirier back in 2022 and has been waiting for McGregor ever since. UFC fans were left gutted following the cancellation of the original UFC 303 main event. With fans desperate to know how the postponement of the showdown came about, Helwani has got the MMA faithful covered.

Ariel Helwani Gives Full Timeline of McGregor vs Chandler Cancellation

The MMA journalist has provided an in-depth summary of what happened

Throughout the whole saga surrounding UFC 303 and the cancellation of McGregor vs Chandler, there has been one MMA journalist throughout the whole process who has been properly in the know and was giving as many updates as they could, and that was Helwani.

Yesterday, on his show 'The MMA Hour,' the combat sports journalist went into as much depth as he possibly could and provided a timeline, almost day by day, of what went down between the cancellation of the Dublin press conference, all the way to White's official announcement of the fight being off.

Helwani starts his timeline at UFC 302, which happened just over two weeks ago. When the Dublin press conference event was announced, White said that once UFC 302 had concluded, he was jumping straight on a plane to go to Ireland for the presser which was scheduled for just two days after the pay-per-view event.

Helwani revealed that while UFC 302 was ongoing, he received a text stating that the press conference was a doubt, but he was given no reason for it at this point. A big part of the first part of this timeline is Chandler. Helwani notes that the American did not board a plane to Ireland, instead, he was literally about to leave his house to go to the airport when he got the call to say that the press conference had officially been cancelled.

Around 12-15 hours before it was announced that the press conference had been cancelled, McGregor suffered an injury. According to Helwani, at this point, the fight is still expected to go ahead, but both the UFC and the Irishman's team are trying their best to keep the injury quiet and avoid the news from getting out. At this stage, there was a lot of anxiety around the status of the fight, but everyone hoped that the bout would remain on for UFC 303 and that McGregor would just manage to get through the injury and make it to fight night.

Later on in the day (Monday) 'The Notorious' posted a statement to X where he apologised to the Irish fans who were supposed to attend the press conference and said: "I can’t wait to put on the greatest all-time show in the Octagon." A key part of this statement, according to Helwani, was the lack of a mention of June 29 specifically, which is the date when UFC 303 happens.

On Tuesday, the day after the press conference was cancelled, the UFC started sending feelers out to fighters on the roster to see if they would be willing or able to step in and fight on short notice. According to Helwani, the UFC's number one alternative all along was Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka 2 for the UFC light heavyweight title.

However, this was going to be a difficult fight to make as 'Poatan' was still dealing with some broken toes and was in the midst of a trip to Australia where he was not seriously training. Despite Pereira vs Prochazka always being the number one target, feelers were also sent out to Dricus du Plessis and Israel Adesanya to see if they would fight, as well as Max Holloway, who could not as he was on vacation. Helwani also revealed that Alexander Volkanovski offered to fight on the card.

Just one day after feelers started to be sent out, the feeling surrounding McGregor vs Chandler going ahead had taken a huge U-turn and there was great optimism and belief that the fight was going to take place on the 29th of June at UFC 303. This feeling was relayed to Chandler and McGregor's team were also very confident that the fight was going to take place at this point.

Helwani Revealed UFC Flew to Ireland to See McGregor

There was growing optimism that the fight would go ahead

At the end of the week, leading into UFC Louisville, where a video package for McGregor vs Chandler was played live on air, the positivity surrounding the bout continued to grow as Chandler appeared on 'The Pivot Podcast' stating that the fight was on. Also around this time, McGregor posted a picture on his Instagram where he seemed to be laid on a bed in some sort of doctor's office smiling. Also around this time, Helwani reveals that the UFC's chief business officer, Hunter Campbell, and the head of the UFC PI, Heather Linden, flew to Ireland to see McGregor. At this point, every party involved wanted and believed the fight was going to remain at UFC 303.

Just days after, on Tuesday, the hope and positivity surrounding the fight had completely vanished and this is where Helwani claims he heard that the fight was officially off and that the UFC were no longer sending out just feelers, but they were looking for a replacement fight with Alex Pereira vs Jiri Prochazka still the number one target. When the UFC went back to both Pereira and Prochazka, the Brazilian was not sure about taking the fight, but Prochazka was always in on the idea. 24 hours later on Wednesday night, it still seemed a long shot that Pereira would take the fight. However, cancelling the event was apparently never an option which the UFC considered.

On Thursday morning, Helwani revealed he was told that Pereira had officially agreed to fight Prochazka at UFC 303 and that at that point, the announcement was just waiting to happen. Later on in the evening on Thursday, Dana White, in a post to his social media channels, officially announced that McGregor was injured and out of his fight against Chandler. Also in this video, White announced Pereira vs Prochazka 2 as the new main event of UFC 303 as well as announcing new bouts such as Brian Ortega vs Diego Lopes and Carlos Ulberg vs Anthony Smith, who replaced the injured Jamahal Hill.

Now that Helwani has provided the full timeline of what happened leading up to the announcement of the cancellation, he has now revealed what the future of the bout could look like. Helwani claims that the injury McGregor suffered is not that serious and that the UFC are hoping to re-book the fight for August or September at the latest.

However, despite this being a targeted time, it will be difficult as the UFC does not want the fight at their huge event at the Las Vegas Sphere in September and there are other fights booked for the pay-per-views in these months already. Helwani revealed that it is possible the UFC will create a whole new pay-per-view event for the fight, which Chandler is willing to and wanting to wait for.