“Justin Gaethje got the same amount of preferential treatment,” Michael Chandler claims Gaethje gets the same Dana White privilege after his UFC debut
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Justin Gaethje
The former Bellator Lightweight champion and number 4th ranked UFC Lightweight fighter, Michael Chandler is going to face the former UFC lightweight title challenger and number 2nd ranked UFC Lightweight fighter, Justin Gaethje at UFC 268.
Michael Chandler stayed in the top-notch competition since his UFC arrival. He was named as the backup fighter in the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje and after that, he made an impactful debut at UFC 257 where he knocked out Dan Hooker in the very first round of the fight. Riding this win he faced Charles Oliveira for the vacant Lightweight title and faced a loss in that fight.
His opponent, Justin Gaethje has been constantly firing shots on Chandler since his arrival and claiming him to receive Dana White privilege. Talking about the same in his latest interview with MMA Fighting, Michael Chandler says, “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,”
“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.”
Chandler continued, “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 were 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.” {H/T MMA Fighting}
Michael Chandler refutes the claims that he is gifted something special in UFC
Michael Chandler will be facing Justin Gaethje at UFC 268 and these two ruthless strikers of the Lightweight division have shared almost similar careers. Chandler refutes the claims that he is gifted something special in UFC and believes Justin Gaethje got the same opportunity as him after his UFC debut.
Chandler added, “Justin Gaethje got the same amount of preferential treatment. The same amount of Dana White privilege. Whatever you want to call it, He came from outside the UFC, came in, got a top-five guy right away. If he would have beat Eddie Alvarez, he would have gotten a title shot. He lost to Eddie Alvarez, which made him go fight a couple more fights.”
“He’s been in some big commercials. He’s been in big fights. He’s headlined cards. He and I have had very similar roads. I think he deserved it because he earned it. He probably in his heart of hearts believes that I deserved it and earned it but he needs to convince himself that I am seeking attention or I’m an attention seeker and I’m a fake and a phony and whatever things he has said.”
Michael Chandler continued, “More than anything, a guy who doesn’t deserve the treatment that I’ve gotten thus far but you’ll find the older you get and the longer you do things, those who ask and those who say yes to opportunities, usually end up making it further than those that don’t or those that fight the powers that be.”
“I’m not here to fight the powers that be. I’m here to fight the guys that they put me up against and Justin Gaethje’s the next one. Whether he loves me, whether he hates me, I know he respects me.” {H/T MMA Fighting}
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Shivansh Thakur
(1173 Articles Published)