Conor McGregor has boldly dismissed claims that he is picking fighters to coach for his UFC return in The Ultimate Fighter.
McGregor has not fought since losing to Dustin Poirier in July 2021 when he suffered a broken leg injury which has kept him out of competitive action for nearly two years. It was finally announced this month that the Irishman would be returning to the octagon against Michael Chandler as part of the UFC's series The Ultimate Fighter.
Prior to his own clash with Chandler, McGregor will go head-to-head with his rival in a coaching battle where the pair will be handed teams to try and coach to victory in a lengthy task for both men. MMA manager Daniel Rubenstein made an allegation online that three fighters had already been removed from the roster to make way for three of the UFC superstar's own fighting prospects.
He tweeted: “Ken Cross, Mitch Ramirez and Brandon Jenkins all got pulled off to make room for three of Conor’s guys to be on the show." UFC middleweight Ken Curtis then furthered the claims when responding to the story on social media, adding: "Most definitely true. What a f***ing a**hole."
However, this drew the attention of McGregor who promptly denied the claim, replying and later deleting: "Not true. I only know one guy on this show and he put himself forward for it. And he is now, after today, set to fight the No. 1 seed! I didn’t ask nor request nothing! And I certainly didn’t have people removed. I’m just trying to get back in the mix myself so f*** off.”
This will not be McGregor's first rodeo on the show given he made a hugely successful appearance on The Ultimate Fighter series against Urijah Faber in 2015. However, since becoming a two-weight champion, the 34-year-old has failed to live up to his sensational best having lost three of his last four fights.
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McGregor however is back in full training and is more confident than ever that he can find redemption, and has been showing off a new bulky physique ahead of a potential return at 170lb. However, Chandler is equally brash about the potential of derailing McGregor's comeback and believes he is the man to do the job.
"Conor is the fight that I wanted, he has expressed interest in wanting to fight me and now here we are," Chandler said on his YouTube channel. "The competition starts right now. We're going to be stuck together in the same city for a month, or month and a half, but the competition is 24/7 the entire time. I want to win this thing; I don't want to beat Conor later this year, I want to beat Conor badly on TUF. I don't even want him to win a fight."
