A Strikeforce star, then a Bellator competitor, and in the end a UFC star, Michael Chandler has a long MMA career and a professional record of 22-7-0.
For the upcoming UFC 274 event, he has been scheduled to fight Tony Ferguson. However, the American dream is not ending there. He sees himself fighting the biggest stars of the UFC and maybe even fighting for a belt.
Michael Chandler Requests To Be The Guy That Conor McGregor Goes Through To Get The Title Shot
He certainly has the potential for being one of the top UFC stars. In order to do so, however, he needs to improve his tactics and finally start to win bouts again. At the moment he has two consecutive losses, one from Charles Oliveira in May 2021, and one 6 months after that, one from Justin Gaethje in November.
The Florida-born boy has a wrestling background and has been a three-time Bellator lightweight champion which makes him a very serious player in the UFC promotion.
Some of his most important wins are the ones over Alvarez and Benson Henderson, both being UFC lightweight champions at some point in their career.
As expected, Chandler is comfortable with fighting on the ground. His fighting technique makes him equally dangerous on his feet as on the gorund. The true ‘antidote’ against Conor McGregor.
“I want that Conor fight just for the magnitude of the moment. Stepping inside that octagon and doing something really monumental and fighting him in front of all the mixed martial arts eyeballs. I mean eyeballs across the whole entire world. You don’t get a bigger platform than fighting Conor McGregor. That’s what I would love to happen if I don’t get the title shot, of course. But July, or August would be great for me. I will go out there beat Tony in May, just have a little bit of time to recover, and then go right back in there for a July, or August fight. The timing works out perfectly.” – Chandler says.
And he’s got a point. The fight would be a megahit audience-wise. When the controversial Notorious gets back in the octagon, the interest in his fight would be a major one. On top of this, if Chandler manages to defeat Conor – that would be an even greater success for him.
Does he really have any chances of winning? Yes, he does. Conor McGregor is a proven striker. However, until now almost all of his opponents who managed to defeat him have a background in wrestling.
The Notorious, being a ‘tarnished’ trash talker is known for his insults to his colleagues. On the contrary, Michael Chandler is respectful and ‘polite’.
He hasn’t included anyone’s families in the trash-talking. He is also sure that Conor cannot ‘get to him’ with comments – “I think that’s why guys have lost to Conor, not just because of Conor’s skill, but because of the magnitude of the moment, the build-up, the fight week, the trash talk, all of the energy you spend outside of just fighting Conor. My gut says I don’t think Conor’s going to stoop that low with me.”
At the preconference Chandler added – “If he comes back and he doesn’t get that title shot, he’s going to have to go through somebody to get that title shot. I think I’m kind of that perfect guy right there, ranked about No. 5. If he comes in and gets a win over me, he definitely gets the title shot. We’ll see.”
We must confess, he’s got a great plan for success. Let us see if it comes true. We sure hope it does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEM1lfQqSZ8
