Michael Chandler Prepares to Fight Charles Oliveira at UFC 309

UFC lightweight contender Michael Chandler is stepping away from his fight with Conor McGregor – at least for now.

Chandler (23-8) will face Charles Oliveira (34-10) in a five-round co-main event at UFC 309 on Nov. 16 at Madison Square Garden, UFC president Dana White told Barstool Sports on Friday night. The UFC has not yet announced the main event for the card, but an announcement was expected soon.

The fight will be a rematch of the vacant title fight that took place in 2021, when Chandler hurt Oliveira with punches in the first round of the fight and then lost via technical knockout in the second round.

The news doesn’t mean Chandler won’t fight McGregor (22-6), who he trained with on “The Ultimate Fighter,” in 2023. The two were scheduled to fight in June, but McGregor was forced to pull out of the fight with a toe injury. It was the first time McGregor has pulled out of a scheduled fight. He hasn’t fought since 2021.

McGregor has announced on social media that he would like to fight in 2024, even recently posting a video of himself training. However, the UFC has publicly stated that he does not intend to fight before 2025.

In a video posted to his Instagram account on Friday, Chandler explained his decision to fight Oliveira instead of waiting for McGregor, whom he called “the most insecure man to ever grace the arena of mixed martial arts.”

“Now I have the opportunity to fight Charles Oliveira, become the No. 1 contender, and then I have options,” Chandler said in his video.

“If Conor can finally get his house in order, if he can finally find some sober days, find some days where he trains and feels good, and if he can finally keep his promise to get back to the greatest shape in the history of combat sports, if he can finally spend the money, then I will fight Conor after I deal with Charles Oliveira.”

Chandler added that he hopes a fight with current champion Islam Makhachev will be an option in 2025.

McGregor, speaking at a post-fight press conference for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship on Friday, addressed the Chandler-Oliveira fight, saying he was “happy with the date” and that it could work with his potential fight with Chandler.

“It’s November,” he said of the Chandler-Oliveira fight. “Maybe we can do it later if they don’t put me in until December, January, February or something like that.”

McGregor was clearly frustrated by the inability to secure a date for the fight. He said he went so far as to ask Turki Alalshikha, chairman of the Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority, to help find a date for the fight. Riyadh Season Alalshikha extended his partnership with UFC in May and is the title partner of Noche UFC at The Sphere.

“I’m a little out of the loop,” he said. “All I can do is continue to do what I’m doing. I’m testing, training every day and that’s it. We’ll see what happens. Hopefully everything will work out.”

Chandler, a former Bellator MMA lightweight champion, has not fought since his loss to Dustin Poirier in 2022, largely because he preferred to wait for a fight with McGregor.

After fighting Chandler for the vacant title, Oliveira defended the belt twice more before losing it to Makhachev.