“Are you really asking for the fight?” Michael Chandler questions Tony Ferguson’s will to fight in “normal time frame”
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Tony Ferguson- Michael Chandler
UFC Lightweight Michael Chandler had possibly the best debut year in UFC history. A highlight-reel knockout, a title match and a fight of the year, you name it, Chandler has done it all. However, 2022 holds possibly even bigger treats for the Bellator MMA legend. A respectful callout of Conor McGregor and digging Dustin Poirier for the latter’s performance at UFC 269 might have secured him some seat.
But so far, the most actively reciprocating fighter for Chandler’s 2022 fight schedule seems to be the one and only Tony Ferguson. Ferguson and Chandler go way back to September of 2020 when Chandler signed with the UFC, they were supposed to meet in October but Ferguson wanted the fight to happen in December by the time of which Chandler backed out because he was already in the training camp as a backup fighter to UFC 254 main event then.
Michael Chandler clarifies he won’t take Tony Ferguson’s fight on a short notice
In his interview at MMA Fighting‘s MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Chandler talked about his status on the fight with Ferguson, in the course of which Chandler shed some light back on Ferguson’s status on the fight as well.
“Tony is an interesting cat man,” says Chandler. “I heard something like last week he wanted to fight me in February which was a five-week notice you know… when a guy says I want to fight this guy but I want more money, I want to fight this guy but be on this date, I want to fight this guy but it’s got to be at this weight- when you add these caveats and asterisks, are you really asking for the fight?“ Chandler questioned.
“Or are you doing it in your terms or in a scenario where you know a guy’s not ready to fight? So yeah there were some rumblings, he was tweeting, then he and Gregor were tweeting, and you know Twitter’s a place people you know talk you know. I would love to fight Tony but we gotta do it at a normal time.“
“I respect the guy, love the way he fights, would love to fight him, would love to share the octagon with him, but we gotta do it in a normal time frame… you need 8-10 weeks to train for a fight, I take this sport seriously, I take these fights very seriously so no I’m not going to fight a guy on a five week’s notice,” he concluded.
What do you make of Chandler’s comments on his fight against Ferguson? Do you think Chandler should take his time in accepting a fight against Ferguson, or should he also consider other options as well as he walks his road to recovery to get back into the octagon? Chandler has shown his interest in taking a rematch against the champion Charles Oliveira or fighting either one of the big fights between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor.
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