Israel Adesanya thinks Conor McGregor still has one obvious UFC fight left if his body lets him return after the UFC 329 injury loss: Michael Chandler.
Adesanya broke down McGregor’s 69-second loss to Max Holloway while speaking with Demetrious Johnson on Precision on the Mighty YouTube channel. The former middleweight champion did not treat the ending like a clean retirement moment. He said McGregor looked heavy, frustrated, and still too competitive to disappear after that kind of finish.
“Yeah, I did see him when he was sitting down and he looked distraught, or like he just looked like he was just like a lot of weight on him,” Adesanya said. “He kind of picked at his glove for a second. So, I thought, is he gonna like retire? I don’t think so. But a fight with Max again after a five-year layoff, you’re fighting at the top, like the f*cking top of the heap. You’re fighting one of the best to do it. That’s a hard fight to come back against.”
That is where Chandler entered the conversation. McGregor and Chandler coached opposite each other on The Ultimate Fighter 31, then had a UFC 303 booking collapse when McGregor withdrew with a toe injury. Chandler spent a long stretch waiting for the payday and the grudge match before moving on.
“I say, I mean if he does decide to come back later on, Chandler would be the only fight that makes sense, because he kind of owes Chandler that fight,” Adesanya said. “He honeyd*cked him for like two, three years while Chandler was waiting for the big money fight. So now after The Ultimate Fighter, after all those times, it’d be good for them to kind of settle the score because they even have a little bit of not beef, but they have, they got some heat there. There’s some heat there. So that would be the fight I think he should come back to.”
Johnson raised the broader fight-week problem. McGregor had been shown throwing dynamic kicks in the locker room, but Johnson questioned whether something changed between the warm-up and the walkout. Adesanya was careful not to claim he knew the medical truth, but he kept coming back to one visual.
“I have eyes, DJ. I have eyes,” Adesanya said. “When they did the replay and he took the Crocs off, he didn’t put weight on that right leg. He didn’t. And I know he was throwing it in the locker room.”
“What I saw when Conor took off the Crocs, as much as he said afterwards, you know, I wasn’t hurt before the fight, I saw he didn’t put weight on the right leg,” Adesanya said. “And that tells me something.”
Watch the full Precision episode below:
Adesanya Says McGregor Looked Compromised Before The Finish
Johnson floated the possibility that McGregor hurt himself somewhere after the backstage kick footage and before stepping into the Octagon. Adesanya agreed that the timing was possible, pointing to other fighters who have suffered freak injuries close to the opening bell.
“Hey man, craziest things have happened,” Adesanya said. “But for me, I will say I don’t know. That’s possible. That’s plausible. He could have hurt himself in the warm-up.”
“All I know is when he got to the prep point and he took his Crocs off, he wasn’t standing on that leg well,” Adesanya said. “And again, that could have been between that warm-up and that point.”
Adesanya also understood why a fighter would still make the walk with that much money, attention, and pressure tied to one night. McGregor had already been out since the Dustin Poirier trilogy in July 2021, and the Holloway rematch was supposed to restart the whole machine.
“You have to realize Conor gets paid,” Adesanya said. “Who knows how much he got paid for this fight, DJ? I’mma estimate over 20 million USD.”
Johnson said the McGregor week itself felt different, and Adesanya agreed that a five-year layoff against Holloway was a rough assignment even before the injury. Johnson said he personally would not want to see a trilogy right away if McGregor had a serious knee injury, because the recovery would stretch deep into another year.
“I don’t know what it would be like being five years removed from the sport of mixed martial arts, coming back fighting a guy like Max Holloway,” Johnson said. “If I am injured, how I’m going to get myself through this? Maybe I was walking to my execution. I have no idea.”
Adesanya then compared the situation to his own UFC 287 rematch with Alex Pereira, saying he went into that fight badly hurt because the opportunity meant too much to pass up.
“Facts. Facts. A couple. But the biggest one I’d say was the UFC 287 in Miami against Pereira,” Adesanya said. “I was 10 days out, had a really bad injury. It was on my right knee.”
“That one’s personal though,” Adesanya said. “So that one was more than just my name being on the banner, you know, a lot of people banking on this fight. It was more than that. That was more if I didn’t get the opportunity to do that fight then I might never have that opportunity again. So I was willing to, you have to risk it. You have to be willing to risk it no matter what. Yeah, and for that fight, I was willing to risk it. Again, thank God it won. I mean, thank God, you know, we pulled it off.”
Adesanya did not love McGregor’s opening attack, either. He said the same kind of explosive entry worked in the first Holloway fight, but this version came from too far out and left McGregor in a brutal landing position.
“That kick worked in the first fight if you remember,” Adesanya said. “He’d throw the jumping switch kick and then attack straight away with the hands, or the flying knee just to like catch his attention and attack straight away with the hands. But he threw it from far and he was trying to reach Max. So when he even landed he was in a really bad position. Like really bad.”
“Look, I know there’s like all the internet warriors out there, but I don’t know. I’m sure you can fake that, but I just don’t think McGregor would just to get out of a fight,” Adesanya said. “I think he was already compromised.”
“If I was him in that situation, and I wasn’t in that situation, it wouldn’t be the first attack I’d throw off the bat,” Adesanya said. “Because, you know, he likes to do that. He comes to the front, the center straight away. He’ll throw a spinning wheel kick. He’ll do something. But that one he threw, if you look at it again, the replay, he threw it from way far out and then even missed Max. So when he missed him, the way he landed on his right leg, then it got f*cked up real bad.”
That analysis lines up with the wider UFC 329 fallout. Sean O’Malley questioned the bad-knee theory from a different angle, while Dustin Poirier questioned McGregor’s flying kick choice and the speculation around whether he entered the cage compromised.
“I think that’s just him,” Adesanya said of McGregor’s fast starts. “That’s his way of owning the cage straight away. Could be a spinning kick, jumping wheel kick, whatever. I think that’s his way of just claiming the center and pushing the other guy back because you have to react when someone throws something like that. You can’t just stay there and block. You have to move back.”
“For that fight yesterday, I just think that was a little bit too much,” Adesanya said. “And honestly, it was unfortunate and it is disappointing because there was so much leading up to this. And you know, again, we’re fans. I’m like, f*ck, it would have been cool to see the fight play out 13 years later, you know, with what they both accomplished in their own careers and how they’ve both developed as fighters. It would have been cool to see it play out yesterday properly.”
Adesanya also gave Holloway credit for how he reacted once McGregor was clearly hurt.
“Shout out to Max because he was like, ‘F*ck, you sure?’ and looking at the ref,” Adesanya said. “Bro, and this sh*t is no mercy. You just have to go for the guy.”
Adesanya Still Lands On Chandler For McGregor’s Exit Fight
Johnson pointed out that injuries are part of the game, from his own broken fibula against Miguel Torres to Cory Sandhagen fighting through the Mario Bautista kneebar sequence at UFC 329. Adesanya pushed back against any easy read that McGregor simply lacked toughness.
“Even Chad Mendes, when Conor went into that fight, he had his ACL was all types of f*cked up,” Adesanya said. “So again, he’s done it before, but that was how many years ago. Father Time catches us all, and healing is different at this age.”
“Even when I was making no money, if I was injured, I’d find a way to fight just because I love the game,” Adesanya said. “But at this level, when there’s so much riding on the line, you have to find a way. But I just, again, the way he did it though, I’m like, yeah, it’s just disappointing. I don’t know. As a fan of Conor, as a fan of the game, and for Max as well, because I know Max wouldn’t want to win like that.”
When the conversation turned back to matchmaking, Adesanya kept Chandler as the cleanest landing spot. It is not only because of the unfinished TUF business. He also sees the fight as realistic for both men after McGregor’s long layoff and Chandler’s own rough UFC run.
“I think Chandler would be the only fight to make right now,” Adesanya said. “It’s a favorable matchup and also it’s a winnable matchup for Chandler as well, fighting a guy like Conor coming off a long layoff and not really getting fulfilled in this fight.”
McGregor has said he still plans to complete the final fight on his UFC contract. That detail has already become a major part of the debate, especially after Chael Sonnen argued McGregor lost bargaining power by leaving UFC 329 injured and still attached to one remaining bout.
“I think knowing a guy like Conor from what we’ve seen, he wouldn’t want to go out like that,” Adesanya said. “I don’t think he’d want to go out like that. I think he’d want to have even just one more before he calls it a career, because to retire off that is just so anticlimactic for a guy who’s done so much in the game and for the game and then that be your last show. Nah, he’d want to be one more fight, Chandler.”
“But Chandler should still fight in the meantime, and if he has other options before McGregor comes back then go for it,” Adesanya said. “But yeah, Chandler is owed that fight. So that should be Conor’s next fight, and if possible his last fight, and then he can do anything he wants.”
Johnson agreed the matchup still works as a business and career reset, especially after Chandler’s long wait and McGregor’s latest injury delay.
“That would be a good fight for those two both to have and it could both be their last fight,” Johnson said. “Chandler, he fights Conor, gets a big paycheck. Conor gets one more time to fight to redeem himself. He gets a big check.”
The ugly part is the medical timeline. McGregor’s next step is surgery and recovery, not a fight camp. Chandler, meanwhile, has to decide whether waiting again makes sense after already losing years to the McGregor chase and then taking more damage in the cage. Adesanya’s case is blunt: if McGregor gets healthy enough for one more walk, the guy who waited through the first mess should be standing across from him.
