Conor McGregor’s pre-fight mind games have already begun.
On Saturday night, Dana White confirmed his biggest star will return from a three-year injury layoff against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29.
McGregor vs Chandler finally has a dateCredit: @TheNotoriousMMA – Twitter
A few hours later, McGregor shared footage of their infamous clash on the set of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, with the caption: “Get the jet fired up it’s almost yacht season.”
‘Notorious’ got into a verbal exchange with the former three-time Bellator champion before pushing him in the face and almost starting an all-out brawl.
Chandler said at the time: “Oh are we going to do this? Are we going to fight right now?”
On Sunday evening, the former dual-weight UFC champion shared a voice note to X – formerly known as Twitter – doing his best impression of Chandler after their scuffle.
He said in a petrified voice: “We’re going to fight right now? We’re going to do this right now? Right here, right now?”
The post has racked up 1.8 million views in less than 10 hours and fans have flooded McGregor’s comment section to say they understand the reference.
One person wrote: “Virtually identical. Oscar worthy.”
Another added: “Looking forward to more of these leading up the fight.”
McGregor’s X voice notes are legendaryCredit: @TheNotoriousMMA – instagram
Chandler tried to get involved but he missed the jokeCredit: Getty
Someone else said: “Damn …now did Chandler post this from Conor’s account.”
Some people didn’t get that McGregor was doing an impression and Chandler was one of them as he thought the Irishman was using his recently acquired acting skills to pretend to be scared.
So, he responded with his own voice note a couple of hours later.
“Conor, it’s too late to be scared,” Chandler replied.
‘Iron’ has been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a fight with McGregor since he suffered a submission defeat to Dustin Poirier at UFC 281 in November 2022.
‘The Diamond’ was also the last man McGregor faced in the Octagon.
They met in a trilogy bout in July 2021, but it ended inconclusively when McGregor broke his leg in the closing moments of round one round at UFC 264.
Only time will tell if the UFC’s greatest legend will be able to return with a win, or if Chandler will put an end to his run as a world-class MMA fighter