“He could ‘end up just being a hot sauce salesman’” Michael Chandler questions Dustin Poirier being reluctant for the title shot
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‘The Diamond’ Dustin Poirier shines bright at UFC 257 and with a win against Conor McGregor, he captured the number one position in the Lightweight division. Along with him, Michael Chandler made the biggest impact in his UFC debut.
In his first appearance inside the UFC Octagon, Chandler knocked out Dan Hooker within just three minutes of the very first round. With the win, Iron Mike called out Dustin Poirier to face him for the UFC title.
But Poirier doubles down on lack of enthusiasm to face Chandler even if UFC put the Lightweight title on the line. Talking about this in his latest interview with MMA Fighting, Chandler says,
“I do think it’s a little bit weird, No matter what, who I was before UFC 257 is much different in the eyes of the fans, the media, the rankings than who I am now after UFC 257.”
“With the dominant performance that I put on against a guy that I finished in two-and-a-half minutes that took him 25 minutes to win a decision against. But Dustin Poirier is a champion in his own right.”
“I believe he should be one half of the lightweight title picture, and it just remains to be seen who it will be. You hear Poirier talking about the trilogy fight with Conor, which we all know more likely than not will not be for the title,”
“So in one sense he says he wants to be champion, but then the other sense he’s talking about, let’s be honest, money fights, eyeball fights, pay-per-view fights. He’s talking about the big notoriety fights.”
“So you’ve got to figure out which it is — do you want to be champion, or do you want to have the most eyeballs, make the most money?”
Michael Chandler admires Poirier even if he isn’t interested in a title shot
Iron Mike admires Dustin Poirier even if he doesn’t appear interested in the title shot. Chandler added, “He can have his opinion, Even him saying I haven’t really earned it, I get where he is coming from. He has 20-something fights in the UFC, I have one. I have two-and-a-half minutes in the UFC essentially.”
“I get what he’s saying, but I’ve earned my way in this sport over the last 12 years, over the last 27 fights. A lot of dominant victories, tons of first-round finishes, tons of exciting fights.”
“We’ll see where the chips land, but I do know us top four are jockeying for a position and two of us should be fighting for that lightweight strap, hopefully this summer if not by the fall.”
“He said if they want Chandler to fight for the title, he’ll go sell hot sauce, and truthfully he might end up just being a hot sauce salesman for the next six months, because I think the title picture is going to move on,”
“I’m not saying I’m going to be one half of it, but I do know life is about opportunities. Life is about saying yes. Life is about performance, especially in this industry. I’ve said yes to every opportunity.”
“I’ve said yes at the drop of a hat with the UFC thinking, ‘Holy cow, this guy’s a little bit nuts for saying yes to this but I love it.’”
“I’m here to continue to earn it, continue to prove it but I know UFC title shots don’t happen very easily, so if I do get that opportunity, or if these other guys don’t take the opportunity, they could get passed up and the guy on the bill could be named Michael Chandler.”
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Shivansh Thakur
(1173 Articles Published)