Conor McGregor has been told by ex-UFC fighter Ben Askren that he could be "killed" by Michael Chandler in their upcoming fight.
McGregor, 34, will look to win his first fight in over three years when he faces Chandler after coaching against his rival on season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter. The fight is expected to headline UFC 296 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 16 as McGregor's coach seemed to confirm the pencilled-in date on social media.
Chandler has been calling for a fight against McGregor since making his UFC debut on the undercard of the Irishman's stoppage loss to Dustin Poirier in January 2021. Both of Chandler's UFC wins have come by knockout and Askren thinks the hard-hitting American could "kill" McGregor in the cage.
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“There’s a chance [Chandler] is going to kill this dude." Askren said on the Funky & The Champ show. "There’s a chance he’ll just go boom, put him down, but then he’s going to try some crazy s*** and there’s a chance he might get put down. McGregor hits hard. It could go either way, and if it goes either way, and it’s a huge fight, they might throw him in for a title.”
McGregor opted to coach on The Ultimate Fighter against Chandler as he wanted to fully immerse himself in fighting before stepping foot in the octagon again. The Irishman's social media shows an absence of training footage in recent months and Askren has theorised that McGregor may not be taking his comeback fight seriously.
“When was the last time you’ve seen a training video of Conor McGregor. Every video I see, he’s partying, he’s dancing, he’s drinking. I don’t know. Is this guy taking it seriously anymore? He can do whatever he wants, apparently, but we also don’t have to consider him a really elite fighter, and he needs to prove that to us again," Askren added.
“I am not under the belief that Conor McGregor is ever going to fight regularly. I just saw he came out saying, ‘I’m going to fight three or four times in the next year.’ That ain’t going to happen. He’s fought four times in six years. Why would he fight three or four times in one year? That’s crazy talk. I’m not even convinced he’s [going to end up] fighting Michael Chandler.”
