The number 5th ranked UFC Lightweight fighter and former Bellator Lightweight champion, Michael Chandler faced one of the most reckless Lightweight fighters on this planet, Justin Gaethje at the opening fight of the UFC 268 main card. Chandler and Gaethje tore each other apart for three rounds and ‘Iron Mike’ took a hell of a beating in this fight.
He lost the fight by unanimous decision of judges in the end but these two produced a show for the fight fans around the world for ages. Michael Chandler is known as one of the best wrestlers in the Lightweight division but in this fight, he used the good old stand and bang with Justin Gaethje.
In his recent appearance on Bussin’ with The Boys, Michael Chandler admitted that he would have won the fight against Gaethje if he wouldn’t have engaged in entertaining the fans so much. Chandler says, “I don’t want to fight that way ever again, but 95% of the fight was just a good ol’ fashioned passionate scrap, you know?”
“5% of it was a little bit of, ‘Dude, what are you doing, man?’ Of course, I’ve gotten criticism like, ‘Hey, if you would have been a little more tactical and not try to put on a show, you would have won the fight.”
Michael Chandler continued, “But truthfully, I’m not just saying this. This sounds like something a loser of a fight would say, but it’s very genuine when I say it was the first time in my career Mike Beltran, the referee, grabbed my wrist,”
“It was that moment when I was about to get my hand raised or keep it down while my opponent got his hand raised or kept it down. And at that moment, when he grabbed my wrist, I was like, ‘Oh, shoot. There’s gonna be a winner and a loser right now.’ First time in my life.’” {H/T MMA News}
Michael Chandler claims a lot of fighters in the Lightweight division don’t want to fight him
Michael Chandler’s reputation is growing day by day as one of the most violent fighters on the UFC roster and after going toe to toe with someone like Justin Gaethje, he believes a lot of fighters in the Lightweight division want to avoid fighting him.
Chandler added, “I know there’s a lot of guys one foot in, one foot out of the violence of the sport. I’m all in, I love it, which is not a good thing necessarily. I think it’s a scary thing.”
“I think there’s a lot of guys at the 155 division that doesn’t want to fight me because of that. I think every single fan on the mixed martial arts planet wants to watch me fight now, so you weigh both sides of it.”
