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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor McGregor has a date for his UFC return.

Finally.

The former two-division champion announced Sunday that his long-awaited matchup against Michael Chandler is slated for June 29 as part of the UFC’s annual International Fight Week pay-per-view. A cackling McGregor stated in his social media announcement that he wants Chandler to fight at 185 pounds — a demand Chandler quickly agreed to.

McGregor, 35, has been tentatively linked to a UFC return bout against Chandler since coaching against the American on The Ultimate Fighter 31 in early 2023. In total, “The Notorious” has fought in MMA just four times since capturing the UFC lightweight title with a 2016 win over Eddie Alvarez, sandwiching a victory over Donald Cerrone between a title loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov and back-to-back knockout losses to Dustin Poirier. McGregor sustained a brutal loss at the hands of Poirier in his most recent bout back in July 2021, suffering a broken leg en route to a first-round TKO injury stoppage.

Check out how some of McGregor’s fellow pros reacted to Sunday’s news below.

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According to reports tonight, undisputed welterweight champion, Leon Edwards is currently slated to defend his divisional title in a rematch against the surging number two ranked contender, Belal Muhammad at UFC 300. The flagship event is scheduled to take place on April 13. from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Edwards, the current undisputed welterweight champion, most recently headlined UFC 296 earlier this month in a title fight with Colby Covington, successfully defending his title for the second time with a one-sided unanimous decision win over the former interim champion.

As for Muhammad, the Illinois native – who weighed-in as an official backup for the headliner, has been sidelined since he landed a title-eliminator win over former title chaser, Gilbert Burns back in May at UFC 288 over the course of five rounds.

Clashing with Edwards back in 2021 at UFC Vegas 21, Muhammad suffered an unintentional eye poke midway through the second round of their main event clash, leaving him unable to continue and resulting in an official ‘No Contest’.

Leon Edwards expected to rematch Belal Muhammad at UFC 300

With the above-mentioned, Edwards confirming overnight at Villa Park how he would be featuring in quickfire turnaround at UFC 300, Ariel Helwani confirmed tonight that the Birmingham favorite is “currently slated” to fight Muhammad at the April event, amid talks of a fight with the unbeaten, Shavkat Rakhmonov.

“As he mentioned yesterday, the plan is for Leon Edwards to defend his title at UFC 300,” Helwani posted on his official X account. “As of now, the opponent slated to face him would be Belal Muhammad. Shavkat Rakhmonov definitely was in the mix, too.” 

News of Edwards’ expected return against Muhammad at UFC 300 comes hot on the heels of an announcement from ex-two-weight champion, Conor McGregor – who ruled himself out an April return, by confirming a June 29. fight with former lightweight champion, Michael Chandler, at a surprising middleweight limit. 

Who wins in a UFC 300 re-run: Leon Edwards or Belal Muhammad?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Conor McGregor has a date for his comeback.

“Notorious” announced Sunday that he will fight Michael Chandler on June 29 at a UFC event in Las Vegas. According to McGregor, the bout will take place at 185 pounds.

See McGregor’s social media announcement below.

“Ladies and gentlemen, a Happy New Year to you all,” McGregor said. “I’d like to announce the return date for myself, the ‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor, the greatest comeback of all time will take place in Las Vegas for International Fight Week, June the 29th… and the opponent, Michael Chandler. And the weight, Mr. Chandler, 185 pounds.”

The UFC is yet to officially announce a bout for McGregor or Chandler, nor has an event been announced for June 29. However, McGregor’s supposed return date would fall in the time range when the UFC typically hosts International Fight Week (the most recent iteration of the event took place in early July).

Should the bout come to fruition, it will mark the former two-division champion’s first fight since he broke his leg in a loss to longtime rival Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 in July 2021.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Dan Hooker believes there’s at least one contender that UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev wants no part of.

In the main event of UFC Austin, Arman Tsarukyan made short work of Beneil Dariush to pick up his third straight win and push himself one step closer to a lightweight title shot. Makhachev currently awaits his next challenger, which could come in the form of “BMF” champion Justin Gaethje or past opponent Charles Oliveira.

Tsarukyan likely needs one more win to earn a shot at Makhachev, the man who defeated him in his UFC debut back in 2019, but Hooker doesn’t think that the streaking Tsarukyan should hold his breath waiting for that rematch.

“Yeah, they had a pretty close fight in the first one,” Hooker said on The MMA Hour. “Yeah, [Tsarukyan] could beat him. [Islam’s] not going to fight him. I guarantee he’ll retire by the time Arman gets there, for sure. It’s too risky, there’s too much risk. There’s too many other easier fights out there that he’d rather fight. There’s easier fights out there, stylistically.

“There are bigger names. No one’s going to buy an Arman Tsarukyan pay-per-view, come on. No one’s tuning in to the press conference. No one’s giving $ 80 for the pay-per-view. You’d rather watch Islam fight [Conor] McGregor or [Justin] Gaethje or something like that.”

As impressed as Hooker was by Tsarukyan’s fight night performance, he was considerably less impressed by his antics during fight week.

Ahead of UFC Austin, videos were released of a physical altercation between Tsarukyan and Bobby Green that took place at the fighter hotel. Though the two fought different opponents on Saturday with Tsarukyan fighting Dariush, and Green fighting Jalin Turner in the co-main event, they still managed to steal headlines with their outside-of-the-cage quarrel.

“That’s a dangerous game,” Hooker said. “Striking distance is for striking. If you want to talk to me, talk to me from over there, but if you come that close, I’m going to hand fight you. That’s silly. … If I’m going to walk up that close, for me, personally, that distance is not for talking. You don’t talk to someone that close.”

“This is business,” he continued. “That’s for show. Walking up to Bobby Green with a camera behind you, that’s for show. This is all for show. There’s cameras everywhere, there’s security there. I know full well if you wanted to get at someone, if you legitimately wanted to attack someone or get at someone, you could do it, 100 percent. You could track them down, you could find them, you could catch them by yourself, no cameras. You could get at someone. So I know that this is all just for show and for attention, to attack someone like that. This is our job, but self-defense is self-defense.”

Hooker’s dislike for Tsarukyan predates UFC Austin fight week as the two have previously aimed insults at each other over a proposed matchup in 2021 that never materialized.

When Hooker recovers from a recent arm surgery and is able to compete again, he thinks it’s possible that Tsarukyan could be the fighter who welcomes him back.

“Perhaps it’s Arman,” Hooker said. “I don’t like the guy, I think he’s an idiot. I think he’s annoying. Can he fight? A hundred percent. That’s why he’s a very talented young fighter, but he’s just annoying. He’s just a dweeb. I just don’t like him.”

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Is he right?
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UFC 297 has lost a Light Heavyweight banger.

Yesterday (Sat., Dec. 30, 2023), former Light Heavyweight title challenger Dominick Reyes took to his Instagram to reveal his scheduled UFC 297 fight with Carlos Ulberg was scrapped due to an Ulberg injury.

“Hey everyone, my fight Jan. 20 has been called off due to my opponent’s “injury”. We are currently looking at options or rescheduling,” Reyes wrote on his Instagram story. “I’ve had a great camp and I’m def frustrated but god has a plan.”

Ulberg apparently did not like Reyes’ use of parenthesis on the word injury because he took to his Twitter to mock the former title challenger.

“@DomReyes Relax Buddy, you’re not about “that life” Rest well!! Ulberg wrote.”

According to MMA Fighting, the pair of heavyweights could potentially be rescheduled for UFC Atlantic City on Mar. 30.

Reyes, 34, is coming off the worst stretch of his professional career, losing four straight – being finished in the last three. In his last outing, he was knocked unconscious by Ryan Spann at UFC 281 with a power jab, and before that, he was knocked out by Jiri Prochazka with a spinning back elbow.

Ulberg, 33, has been on a roll since dropping his UFC debut to Kennedy Nzechukwu. He has won five straight, finishing four of his last opponents. He was last in action against Da Un Jung at UFC 293, and after the fight, he called out Reyes in his in-cage post-fight interview.