Conor McGregor is gearing up to face Michael Chandler in his much-awaited comeback at UFC 303 on June 29. And Michael Bisping thinks the winner of that bout will fight for the UFC title next. This, despite McGregor having lost three of his last four fights and coming off of a serious injury after three years. Chandler, too, has been inactive for the past year and is coming off a similar skid in his form and will have a few contenders ahead of him even if he defeats the unranked McGregor in their welterweight bout.

Bisping, however, thinks there is too much money to be made for the UFC to not book the winner of the UFC 303 main event against champion Makhachev. “The reality is, I’m telling you, whoever wins that fight could potentially get a title fight because McGregor is the biggest star the sport has ever seen or ever will if he gets back to winning ways on a pay-per-view, breaks the attendance record, pay-per-view sales are through the roof and business is booming once again,” the former middleweight champion said in a video on his YouTube channel.

Further, the Englishman felt that given the history behind McGregor and Makhachev’s mentor and friend, Khabib Nurmagomedov, including their UFC 229 bout (which remains the most commercially successful UFC fight till today), the UFC would be eager to make ‘Mac’ fight Makhachev.

“Don’t tell me they’re not going to give him a title fight against Islam Makhachev, number one, the most-ever-watched pay-per-view of all time in the UFC is Conor McGregor versus Khabib Nurmagomedov and that will be the closest thing to a rematch that they could ever do,” he added. But, before that, he needs to deal with Chandler, which is not going to be an easy task, as Bisping himself pointed out.

A knockout is Conor McGregor’s best bet for UFC 303 victory

Speaking about the stylistic matchup between Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor, Michael Bisping felt that McGregor was clearly the better striker. This, he felt would help the Irishman early on, but, as the fight went on, McGregor would find it progressively harder to keep up with the former Bellator champion.

In addition, the Englishman pointed out that ‘Mac’ was coming off of an injury, consecutive losses and long periods of inactivity, which made the prospect of him succeeding even more remote. The “main issue” however, according to the UFC commentator, was ‘Notorious’s advancing age.

While the prospects of the Irishman winning the bout are not look good, given the various disadvantages he is going into UFC 303 with, McGregor still carries the one-punch knockout power he knocked Jose Aldo out with. And at 170, his power is likely to only increase. And Chandler, of course, is always game to stand and trade, which makes the prospect of a knockout very plausible.

What are your thoughts on Bisping’s comments? Let us know in the comments.