Michael Chandler has been in the UFC for less than one year and has managed to fight almost three times and set himself up for big opportunities. He fought for the belt after his successful debut against Dan Hooker at UFC 257.
Micheal Chandler is now set to fight Justin Gaethje at UFC 268 in a fight that could determine who gets the next title shot. He spoke to MMAFighting in the lead-up to the fight.
Justin Gaethje wasn't a big fan of Michael Chandler getting that opportunity. Chandler admits Gaethje might have earned the next shot but he was ready to go and said ‘yes.'
“I will sit here and admit whenever Khabib retired and there was a pool of all of us, Justin Gaethje might have deserved to fight for the title more than me, more than Charles Oliveira,” Chandler said when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I think there’s some resentment there, which is fine. Completely warranted. I would have thought the same thing. I think he was in some contract negotiations. I know obviously Dustin [Poirier] and Conor [McGregor] were tied up so there were only so many options that the UFC had at the time.
“With the debut that I made, I had a ton of momentum and I was willing to say yes. That’s one thing that I’ve done. I’ve said yes. I said yes to Justin Gaethje numerous times, whether the fight was actually offered to him or not, I know that fight was being worked on for Jan. 23. Maybe for May, I don’t know, there was some talks of it. When you’re in the UFC lightweight division, everybody’s so good and everybody’s got such a big name that there’s going to be some jockeying for position. He was left out of that one so I’d be just as mad as he is, which will in turn make you want to throw jabs at people. It’s part of it. Either way, we will let our fight do the talking.”
Michael Chandler could set himself up for a big 2022 with a win at UFC 268. He will be looking to take out a tough-as-nails Justin Gaethje.
Follow Us
Subscribe