The Notorious has advised supporters to mark December 16 on their calendars as the day of his return matchup with Michael Chandler. Since injuring his ankle against Dustin Poirier in July 2021, McGregor has not competed in the UFC.

However, a number of MMA fans revealed an image from UFC Fight Pass yesterday that appeared to suggest McGregor and Chandler will be the main event of Dana White's final pay-per-view event of the year. After the former dual-weight champion shared it with his 10.1 million Twitter followers, the page which even had a UFC 296 countdown clock was later taken off from the website.

McGregor, who has often stated that he will fight before the end of 2023, recently asserted that his return fight has been postponed until 2024.

He then returned to Twitter and declared: “December is back on the table!” as fans started to understand they wouldn't get to witness MMA's biggest star compete this year.

Sean O'Malley, a fellow UFC fighter, stated he had spoken with McGregor and was hoping to co-headline with the Irishman before Christmas. Since then, he has remained silent about his upcoming fight.