Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler finally official for UFC 303

Conor McGregor is back – for real this time.

The Irish superstar and former two-division champion finally makes his 170-pound return to action against Michael Chandler in the five-round main event of UFC 303, which caps off International Fight Week 2024 on June 29 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

The UFC announced the matchup during the UFC 300 post-fight press conference on Saturday night.

It’s been a long time coming for McGregor, whose layoff began with a devastating injury in his most recent outing, a UFC 264 fight with Dustin Poirier that ended with a broken leg. The injury kept McGregor sidelined, but he plotted his return this past year when he signed on to coach The Ultimate Fighter 31 opposite Chandler.

The coaching stint on the reality show came and went, and McGregor still didn’t make his return, largely because he hadn’t re-enrolled in the UFC’s anti-doping program. McGregor finally submitted himself to drug testing again this past October, and after undergoing the six months of required testing, he was clear to fight as of March.

Rumors swirled for weeks that McGregor would face Chandler at UFC 300, but he had a prior commitment to promote the new Road House remake on Amazon, which served as his first starring role in a feature film. That promotion schedule would have made fighting at UFC 300 nearly impossible.

As for Chandler, the former Bellator lightweight champion has been out of action for over a year waiting for the McGregor fight. He most recently appeared in November 2022, when he suffered a submission loss to Dustin Poirier, dropping his overall UFC record to 2-3.

Chandler hopes to get back on track while taking out the biggest draw in UFC history when he faces McGregor in June. More fights are expected to be announced for the June pay-per-view in the coming weeks.