An MMA Thanksgiving: 2023 All-Turkey Team

***

We the People

It was in February that Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler were announced as opposing coaches for “The Ultimate Fighter 31.”

“At the end of the season, McGregor and Chandler will fight live on ESPN+ pay-per-view,” UFC CEO Dana White said at the time. “I do not have a date or a location for that, but we will announce it soon.”

Depending upon your definition of “soon,” the UFC has not lived up to its end of the bargain in that regard. While Season 31 episodes concluded in August—with the finals of the reality show taking place at UFC 292—McGregor and Chandler have yet to lock in a date for their proposed fight.

The latest, courtesy of McGregor coach John Kavanagh, has the fight targeted for sometime in the summer of 2024, which was a delay from the rumored UFC 300 date in April. Of course, the bout was initially expected to take place by the end of 2023—standard protocol for fights between coaches on “The Ultimate Fighter.”

However, McGregor dragged his feet and did not re-enter the USADA drug-testing pool until October after looking especially bulked up for filming of the “Roadhouse” remake earlier this year. Still, those who follow the sport know that anti-doping policy guidelines are merely strong suggestions for the UFC’s biggest stars. Case in point: the exemption that led to Brock Lesnar being cleared to compete at UFC 200.

With that said, a glance at McGregor’s activity on social media in past months did not suggest an athlete preparing for peak performance. Instead, the former UFC two-division champion partied, pitched his brands and generally enjoyed the lavish lifestyle of someone who has earned untold riches from prizefighting. There also might have been a few transgressions—or near transgressions—along the way, but that’s just par for the course for the “Notorious” Irishman. Through it all, his would-be foe has kept the faith.

“I think he’s coming back,” Chandler said in May. “It sure would be a huge stain on his legacy, leading everybody down a road, making people think that he’s coming back and then kind of chickening out at the very end and only doing it for the publicity. That, to me, screams insecurity, and he’s trying to stay relevant rather than seeing through your commitment… At this point, I’m believing we are going to fight later on this fall, maybe winter at the latest—and we’ll see what happens.”

The projection turned out to be overly optimistic, but even McGregor appears to have grown frustrated with the delay in the proceedings.

“I’ve been kept from my living for almost three years now. Understand that. I came through what I came through. I’m sitting on an injury and a loss,” McGregor told reporters while attending the Francis Ngannou-Tyson Fury boxing match in October. “You hear what Alexander Volkanovski said? I relate. I must return to my way of living. This is my job. It’s beyond frustrating... I just want the date. Give me the date, please. That’s it.”

With no announcement for McGregor-Chandler in sight, who deserves the ridicule for entertaining this ongoing saga? It’s not McGregor. He seems to be doing quite well, whether he fights again or not. It’s not Chandler. One can hardly blame the ex-Bellator champion for holding out for the biggest payday of his combat sports career. And it’s not the UFC. The guaranteed ESPN money makes the promotion far less reliant on pay-per-view buys than it was in previous years.

There’s only one right answer. It’s us, the fans (and media), for wanting to believe this fight would happen this year. We’re the turkeys in this story. We will keep waiting, because that’s what we do.

Continue Reading » Slap Happy