Michael Chandler to fight Charles Oliveira at UFC 309

UFC lightweight Michael Chandler is putting the fight against Conor McGregor behind him – 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 had not yet announced a main event for that card, but an announcement is expected soon.

The fight is a rematch of a vacant championship fight from 2021, when Chandler hurt Oliveira with punches in the opening round of the fight before suffering a TKO loss in the second round.

The news does not necessarily mean that Chandler will not face McGregor (22-6), whom he trained on “The Ultimate Fighter,” in 2023. The two were scheduled to face each other in June, but McGregor had to pull out of the bout due to a toe injury. It was the first time McGregor canceled a scheduled fight. He has not fought since 2021.

McGregor has claimed on social media that he wants to fight in 2024 and even recently posted a video of himself training, but the UFC has publicly stated that he will not fight until 2025.

In a video posted to his Instagram account on Friday, Chandler explained his decision to face Oliveira rather than wait for McGregor, whom he called “the most unreliable human being ever seen in the sport of mixed martial arts.”

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

“If Conor can finally get his life in order, if he can finally get a few sober days in a row, a few days in a row where he actually trains and actually feels good, and if he can finally make good on his promise to make the greatest comeback in the history of combat sports, if he can finally raise the cash, then I will fight Conor after I beat Charles Oliveira.”

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

McGregor spoke about the Chandler-Oliveira fight later Friday at a press conference following a Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship event, saying he was “happy with the date” and saying it could fit in with his own potential fight against Chandler.

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

McGregor was visibly frustrated at not being able to get a fight date. He said he even reached out to Turki Alalshikh, chairman of the General Entertainment Authority of Saudi Arabia, for help in finding a fight date. Alalshikh's Riyadh Season extended its partnership with the UFC in May and is the title partner of Noche UFC at The Sphere.

“I'm just a little bit on the sidelines,” he said. “All I can do is carry on as before. I test, I train every day, and that's it. Let's see what happens. Hopefully everything works out.”

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

After his vacant title fight with Chandler, Oliveira defended the belt twice before losing it to Makhachev.