UFC announcer explains why Conor McGregor was 'wise' to pull out of UFC 303

Conor McGregor (22-6) has taken some heat for withdrawing from his UFC 303 main event bout with Michael Chandler (23-8) scheduled for the end of June.

And while McGregor’s broken toe is a legitimate reason for him to not want to fight a top title contender like Chandler, other fighters and media pundits have criticized the outspoken Irishman for looking for an easy way out of the fight.

Long-time UFC broadcaster Joe Rogan is not one of them. In fact, during a recent episode of his “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, the 56-year-old commentator, who’s also a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, explained why McGregor actually made the right call in sitting the Chandler fight out.

“Look, here’s the thing about a broken pinky toe — when you’re a guy who kicks as much as Conor, it’s a [expletive] problem and it’s also the same foot where his leg was snapped, and he went into that fight injured,” Rogan said. “He’s never pulled out of a fight before, this is the first one he’s pulled out of, and I think it’s wise. … What if he throws a kick and it smashes again and he’s in agony and he can’t move?”

McGregor learned the hard way why it’s not smart to move ahead with a fight while battling an injury.

In his second showdown with Dustin Poirier, McGregor broke his left leg and the incident sidelined him for nearly three years. Rogan was actually sitting cage-side calling the fight when the injury happened and he saw the incident firsthand.

McGregor revealed after the fight that he was actually dealing with stress fractures in that same leg, which could have contributed to the freak injury. So when a similar situation presented itself prior to his comeback fight, McGregor chose to play it safe. 

There’s no timetable for his return, though he’s hinted he would like to return to the Octagon in August or September or this year – something UFC president Dana White has said isn’t likely to happen.

The UFC had been building up the McGregor-Chandler fight for over a year and UFC 303 had one of the highest ticket prices of any card in the company’s history – four times the average cost of a typical UFC card.