Timeline: 48 hours from McGregor combat cancellation to new UFC 303 card

The UFC has lastly introduced that Conor McGregor is off UFC 303 with an undisclosed harm, and now that the cat is out of the bag we’re beginning to get particulars on what has been happening behind the scenes surrounding the large June twenty ninth card.

The occasion, which anchors Worldwide Combat week, has now been utterly reworked with a brand new fundamental occasion: Alex Pereira vs. Jiri Prochazka will rematch for the sunshine heavyweight title in the primary occasion slot. Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes function the brand new co-main. And Carlos Ulberg will now combat Anthony Smith as a consequence of one other undisclosed situation with Jamahal Hill.

MMA Combating’s Ariel Helwani has been on the forefront of reporting on the McGregor state of affairs, and he went in-depth on how occasions shook out.

“Conor McGregor suffered an harm a few day earlier than that scheduled press convention in Dublin,” Helwani revealed in a brand new X (previously Twitter) video. “And that’s why there wasn’t a press convention. Now the explanation why they didn’t need that [injury news] to return out was there was hope that the combat would nonetheless be on and that it might be all good and salvaged. And so that you clearly don’t need your opponent to know that you’re harm. Comprehensible.”

“Initially there was some nervousness over the harm, then there was optimism, and so they began to re-promote [the fight], and Michael Chandler did an interview about it and all these items. However then in the beginning of this week the pessimism began to creep in. And about 48 hours or so in the past, the conclusion was that this combat wasn’t going to occur. So the UFC went into overdrive, and this was led by [CBO] Hunter Campbell who has develop into fairly recognized now within the MMA neighborhood as a consequence of that UFC Combat Inc. docu-series on Roku.”

“They reached out to a bunch of individuals,” Helwani continued. “And the problem, the primary one, is there aren’t a ton of choices proper now simply given the schedule, given who’s simply fought, who’s scheduled to combat. The best choice from the start was Jiri Prochazka and Alex Pereira for the sunshine heavyweight title. Rematch. There have been another feelers despatched out to names like Max Holloway, there was some discuss of a alternative for McGregor. Not quite a lot of choices so far as a model new combat was involved.”

“Lastly round 24 hours in the past, they zeroed in on Prochazka vs. Pereira. Prochazka was in from the beginning. When he introduced a combat on the Oktagon present [on Saturday] he was not referring to this, he was referring to maybe the Perth card later this summer time. Alex Pereira was the primary hurdle as a result of he’s in Australia doing a seminar tour, taking a while off, however has continued to coach, I’m instructed. He additionally has these two damaged toes, one suffered earlier than UFC 300 and one suffered throughout his win over Jamahal Hill at UFC 300. However the man is stepping up once more.”

To put out the timeline extra explicitly: McGregor suffered an harm round Saturday, June 1st. Round Tuesday June eleventh the combat was lifeless and UFC began significantly in search of a alternative. On Wednesday June twelfth they zeroed in on Pereira vs. Prochazka 2, and on Thursday June thirteenth they introduced the brand new re-jigged UFC 303 card.

There was quite a lot of delay and uncertainty over the previous week and a half as McGregor struggled to remain on the June twenty ninth card, however the UFC acted fairly fast as soon as the conclusion was made that he couldn’t combat. Whereas there’s no combat that may equal a McGregor combat, pulling an entire new card out of skinny air on such quick discover is fairly spectacular.

The brand new McGregor-less UFC 303 card nonetheless goes down June twenty ninth from Las Vegas, Nevada. Tell us what you consider it within the feedback beneath, Maniacs.