Conor McGregor OUT of UFC 303; Light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira rides to the rescue yet again

Conor McGregor and Jamahal Hill are out of UFC 303 with injuries, Michael Chandler is left at the altar again and once more, Alex Pereira is heading in to try to save the day.

Ever since a planned June 3 news conference in Dublin, Ireland, that was designed to promote McGregor's return to MMA against Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29 in Las Vegas was postponed, speculation has been rampant about McGregor's status. McGregor injured his lower left leg in a July 10, 2021 bout against Dustin Poirier and hasn't fought since.

UFC CEO Dana White announced on social media late Thursday that McGregor was out of the bout with Chandler due to an unspecified injury and that a light heavyweight title bout between Alex Pereira and former champion Jiri Prochazka would step in as the new main event of UFC 303. White announced that Hill, who was knocked out by Pereira at UFC 300, was injured and is out of the co-main event against Carlos Ullberg.

White told KevinIole.com that McGregor's injury is not related to the 2021 injury, but he didn't say what it was.

The new co-main event will be a featherweight battle between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes. Ullberg will stay on the card and will now face veteran Anthony Smith, White said. White said the remainder of the card was intact.

That wasn't all on Thursday for White. Earlier in the day, Khamzat Chimaev pulled out of his main event bout on June 22 against ex-middleweight champion Robert Whittaker with an illness and was replaced by Ikram Aliskerov at UFC on ABC 6 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Pereira is stepping up to save the UFC for the second time in two months. He accepted the main event of UFC 300 against Hill on short notice when all of the bouts the UFC wanted to make for the show were unable to be put together by injury. 

He defeated Prochazka to win the vacant light heavyweight belt at UFC 295 in New York on Nov. 11, stopping Prochazka in the second round. By facing Prochazka, Pereira keeps a mind-boggling streak alive. Each of the last six men Pereira faced either held or had held a UFC championship or, in Sean Strickland's case, would go on to win won. The Prochazka rematch will make that seven in his 13 fights.

Ortega and Lopes were added to the card to give it some extra pizzazz given how much the loss of McGregor at the top of the card will sting. The UFC had already had a record gate of over $20 million, with fans anticipating his return.

Lopes has been on fire and has been on a Ronda Rousey-esque run. He finished each of his last three fights early in the first round. He submitted Gavin Tucker with an arm bar in 1:38 on Aug. 5, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. He knocked out Pat Sabatini at UFC 295 in 1:30 on Nov. 11 and he stopped Sodiq Yusuff in 1:29 on April 13 in Las Vegas at UFC 300.

Ortega returned to competition for the first time in nearly two years on Feb. 24 in Mexico City and submitted Yair Rodriguez with an arm triangle at 58 seconds of the third round.