Former UFC lightweight Will Brooks had some interesting comments on his former foe Michael Chandler. He had watched the entertaining scrap at UFC 268 against Justin Gaethje but he came away with a different perspective.
Will Brooks spoke to ClutchPoints and gave his thoughts on Michael Chandler's UFC run. He had an interesting take on his fight against Justin Gaethje.
“I'll be honest like me and Chandler was what? Four years ago? Whatever it may have been, but at the same time, it is one of those things where you see it and you know, like look I beat that guy once on two weeks notice. I beat that guy again on a full training camp and I was the first person to finish him. He had never been finished until he fought me. I wrote the week of fight on every poster that we had to sign I wrote: ‘Will Brooks the first guy to ever finish Michael Chandler' I put it all into fruition, I thought it into existence. So to see him have success, of course, look man, I want every human being and every man to be able to provide for his family to have success in regards to anything that he does. But at the same time it gets on my nerves a little bit, it frustrates me a little bit and this this doesn't just go for a Michael Chandler. This goes for Justin Gaethje, this goes for a Charles Oliveira, it goes for all the guys like that, that I see winning right now having success. The Dan Hooker's who was having success, it goes for everybody.
“It's like, Man, I know, I can beat a lot of these guys in when I'm locked in,” the former UFC fighter coninued. “I'm focused and my mind is in the right place. And I'm emotionally in a good place. I can beat anybody at any given day of the week and, unfortunately, that's the one thing that I didn't accomplish. I wasn't in a good mental and emotional place mentally, emotionally. And I should address that when I had the time and I didn't properly address it at that time. And I paid for… you know, I went into a cage with another man across the cage ready to take my head off my body. I didn't give them the respect that I needed to give. So I paid for it. Now, I'm in a way better place. I'm feeling like the old Will Brooks, the guy that was dominating and being aggressive in every single fight and that's what I'm really focused on continuing to be and, best of luck to Chandler and best of luck to all those guys.
“But I know one thing, if I do get the opportunity to get back there, nobody's gonna see me fighting like a Michael Chandler, Justin Gaethje were, you know… I personally think Chandler quit in that fight. He knew that he wasn't going to beat Gaethje and he saw Gaethje had a step on him. So instead of trying to win the fight, he started trying to entertain the crowd. I think that was a backdoor exit for him. ‘Well alright, this guy's lighting me up I'm losing this fight, so I might as well try to win over the crowd.' Which is cool, good politics, good strategy, but I fight to win bro. Like that's what I do. I fight to win. I put together strategies to outdo the other guy and that's what I'm focused on.”
Will Brooks is hoping for a return to the UFC and he is currently on the comeback trail. Michael Chandler will forever remain a big win on his record and the two will be talked about for a long time.
UFC 268 saw Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler battle it out for a fight of the year. Will Brooks saw it differently than most.
Follow Us
Subscribe