Michael Chandler is still hanging on to the Conor McGregor fight.

Once upon a time, Chandler and McGregor were destined to meet in the octagon. The UFC stars served as opposing coaches on Season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter, with the assumption they would fight following the conclusion of the show. TUF 31 aired its last episode in August 2023, Chandler vs. McGregor was scheduled for UFC 303 in June 2024, and then McGregor withdrew from the bout due to a toe injury.

Chandler fought twice in McGregor’s absence, losing to Charles Oliveira and Paddy Pimblett, and has maintained that he still makes the most sense for McGregor’s comeback fight. UFC CEO Dana White recently said the ship has sailed on the matchup, prompting the following Chandler response.

“My reaction is we will see,” Chandler said on The Ariel Helwani Show. “We’ll see how this whole thing plays out. Obviously, nobody has any idea what the fights are going to be on the White House card. It is going to be the biggest card they’ve ever assembled. Whether it be the biggest fights, obviously the biggest venue and, you know, we’ll see. Is that 100 percent how it’s going to be, me and Conor not fighting at the White House? I don’t know. All I know is I can control what I can control and that’s me just doing exactly what I’ve been doing since Day 1, since I started the sport.

“Obviously, it’s not encouraging. It’s not great to hear, but I’ve also heard many things that were not encouraging that turned out to be not true or just flat-out false, so we just keep on going. Until the fights get announced, until Conor McGregor gets announced his next opponent, until I do or do not get announced as his next opponent or do or do not get announced as being on the White House card, until then all we can do is just hope and pray and kind of see what happens.”

As Chandler notes, it’s anybody’s guess right now as to what the plans are for the UFC White House lineup. White has said on multiple occasions that the priority for the past few months has been figuring out the logistics for the historic June 14 card, which will be attended by President Donald Trump and numerous high-ranking officials and VIPs.

Former UFC star Jorge Masvidal has hinted that he will end up on the card, while fanning the flames of a rumored matchup with McGregor, but White has shot that down as well. Chandler always knew it was smoke.

“I think [Masvidal] originated it,” Chandler said. “When you say you cannot confirm nor deny something, you’re kind of implying that you’re putting your name in there. I like Jorge, I’ve got a ton of respect for him. Shoot, he and I have talked about fighting each other in the past, but it’s all respect. ‘Super necessary,’ ‘Street Jesus.’ He’s a fan favorite, people love to see him fight, and obviously he’s got the Trump connection. He wants to fight at the White House card.

“Every single person on the entire roster wants to be on the UFC White House card. At any given moment, somebody wants to try to insert themselves into the talks, into the narrative, into the possible fantasy matchmaking at any given time. I’ve known that since the very beginning, I’ve seen a lot of different talks, but as I said, just sitting and the patience of knowing that you can’t really control anything and sometimes narratives can take steam and catch legs, but it remains to be seen. After this weekend, as Dana said, matchmaking starts on Monday, that’s when the talks will really be happening to solidify who’s on the White House card. I think I’ll be on the White House card. Opponent as of right now remains to be seen, so we’ll see what happens.”

Still, Chandler isn’t deluding himself into thinking that no news is necessarily good news. Hearing White’s lack of enthusiasm for re-booking the Chandler-McGregor clash wasn’t exactly what Chandler expected, but as far as he’s concerned, the fight isn’t dead yet.

“I am human,” Chandler said. “So I’m not going to lie and say it wasn’t exactly encouraging. Would I have rather have not have heard it? Of course, but anything short of, ‘Yeah, that’s definitely a fight we’re looking at, Chandler and Conor are 100 percent going to fight each other and they’re definitely, probably going to fight each other at the White House,’ anything short of that is going to be deflating, right? So you’ve just got to kind of take it as it comes and know that you’re not in control. Know that they’re going to say what they want to say and they’re going to do what they want to do and I’m just going to be along for the ride.

“So no, I wouldn’t say ‘deflated.’ I wouldn’t go as far as to say ‘deflated’ because I’ve still got the confident expectancy that I’m fighting Conor McGregor on the White House lawn. So until I am proven otherwise, we’ll just continue on this course of action until the announcement gets made. That’s where we’re at.”

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