ESPN’s Brett Okamoto asked the UFC lightweight contender’s thoughts on BKFC and his fight with Conor McGregor, forecast for later this year.
Michael Chandler told ESPN that he bought the BKFC 41 pay-per-view last weekend as he is friends with numerous fighters on the card. When asked on his thoughts on seeing McGregor in the ring facing off against Mike Perry, he said:
”The funny thing about Conor is that he is as much a celebrity as he is a fighter, you know. It’s almost like he’s become such a big celebrity that people forget that he is actually a fighter”
Chandler went on to talk about how the ‘Notorious’ has broken the mould in terms of how he is such a huge superstar, and that his appearance at BKFC wasn’t surprising given both his celebrity status and tendency to attend big fights, describing them as good ‘photo opportunities’.
Despite enjoying previous BKFC events, when asked by Okamoto whether Chandler could ever see himself fighting in BKFC, Chandler made it clear that his focus is only on achieving UFC Gold. Once he hangs up the [UFC] gloves, we will not see him compete again in combat sports.
Although Chandler’s allegiance seems to be solely with the world’s premier MMA organisation, he certainly doesn’t doubt his ability when it comes to bare knuckle fighting. After watching footage of his own career highlights recently, Chandler described himself as a ‘psychopath’, which is hard to disagree with despite the amenable nature he displays in interviews. The man we see away from the cage seems very different to the blood-thirsty madman we see under the bright lights.
Once the new season of the Ultimate Fighter has finished airing, it is widely expected that the two coaches for this season will compete against one another. With McGregor currently being in a dispute with USADA regarding the timescale required to be in the testing pool, when and where the bout takes place is yet to be determined.
As Chael Sonnen recently mentioned on his YouTube channel, it’s important to note that the fight between Chandler and McGregor isn’t booked yet, therefore Chandler doesn’t [in theory] have an opponent for his next fight. Chandler, though, doesn’t have many doubts about McGregor’s return due to the size of his ego and his love for the fight game which he believe still holds true despite all the wealth and the fame.
”I think he’s coming back; it sure would be a stain on his legacy, leading everybody down a road, making everybody think he’s coming back to then chicken out at the end and only doing it for the publicity. That, to me, screams insecurity and trying to stay relevant rather than seeing through your commitment [to the fight]”.
Chandler then told Okamoto that his confidence in beating McGregor comes from being around him and described how spending so much time in his presence during filming the show has humanised his future opponent. In other words, he doesn’t put McGregor on a pedestal anymore.
”I’m definitely going to smash this dude, bludgeon him with these two hands. Vintage, foot on the gas, never take a backwards step. In your [McGregor’s] face, break your spirit, break your will to live.”
Chandler doesn’t see this fight going the distance, predicting it will end in the first two rounds by a clean knockout and said that he would take pleasure in doing so. The ‘Notorious’ saw his rival’s comments and unsurprisingly had an opposing view.
”I’m gonna pick him apart, pick him up, put him down, beat him up in any way that I want to and honestly have my way with him. It’s gonna be awesome co-maining the Ultimate Fighter as I went [go] out there, the biggest fight of my life, and put his lights out under the birightest lights I could ever asked for”.
The Ultimate Fighter: Season 31 airs on May 30. Episodes will be shown weekly on ESPN.
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