Report – Conor McGregor accused of removing contestants from TUF 31 to make room for teammates

Former two-weight UFC champion, Conor McGregor, appears to already be ruffling feathers ahead of filming of The Ultimate Fighter 31 – with the Dubliner accused of booting three initially penned contestants from the reality television programe, in order to make room for three of his own teammates to feature on the show.

McGregor, a former undisputed featherweight and lightweight champion under the UFC banner, landed in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this week to begin filming for The Ultimate Fighter 31 – with the 34-year-old set to coach against lightweight contender, Michael Chandler.

First serving as an opposing coach on TUF 22 back in 2015, Conor McGregor is slated to fight Missori veteran Chandler later this year at the welterweight limit, however, despite floating a potential September matchup, an official location, venue, or date for the 170lbs affair has yet to be determined by the UFC. 

Conor McGregor slapped with accusations ahead of TUF 31 filming

With filming commencing in the coming weeks ahead of a May premiere on ESPN+ and ESPN the network, Conor McGregor has allegedly shoehorned three of his teammates onto the reality television show’s season, in place of their previously casted fighters.

“Kenneth Cross, Mitch Ramirez, and Brandon Jenkins all got pulled off to make room for 3 of Conor’s (McGregor) guy (sic) to be on the show,” Ruby Sports & Entertainment founder and mixed martial arts manager, Daniel Rubenstein tweeted. 

Without a victory in his last two professional walks consecutively for the first time in his combat sports career, McGregor’s outing against Chandler will mark his first fight since fracturing his left tibia and fibula in a July 2021 bout against Dustin Poirier.

As for Chandler, the Kill Cliff FC staple also suffered a loss to Poirier last time out – in the form of a rear-naked choke submission defeat at UFC 281 in November.