'I'm Conor's next fight'… Michael Chandler willing to 'bet it all' that he will still fight Conor McGregor in his UFC comeback
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Michael Chandler has received heavy criticism over the past two years for patiently waiting for a potential fight against Conor McGregor, but ‘Iron’ finally reached the end of his tether recently.
After Dana White adamantly announced that Conor McGregor wouldn’t be returning to the Octagon this year, Michael Chandler demanded a different fight, to which the UFC afforded him a rematch against Charles Oliveira.
With the two scheduled to clash at UFC 309 in November, ‘Iron’ Chandler believes that with a win over ‘Do Bronx’, he will then be given the choice of either a fight against the undisputed lightweight champion or ‘The Notorious’ McGregor.
Michael Chandler willing to ‘bet it all’ that he will fight McGregor in comeback fight
Despite deciding to take a different fight instead of waiting longer than the two years he’s already waited, the 38-year-old believes that it will still be him who gets to welcome the former two-weight world champion back to the UFC.
“I still stand firm in the notion that Conor McGregor is coming back and when he does, his road goes through Nashville Tennessee, and Michael Chandler, and we finish the Ultimate Fighter,” Chandler began to explain in an interview with MMAFighting.
“I’m Conor’s next fight but he’s not my next fight and I’m willing to go and bet it all, I’m willing to go and bet the house, I’m willing to go and bet the farm, I’m willing to put all the pressure on myself in a huge fight card.
“When he gets his house in order I’ll be waiting for him. If not, I got no problem beating Charles and going to fight for the title because if I had that choice today I’m going to fight Islam (Makhachev) after I beat Charles,” he continued.
The aforementioned Islam Makhachev is out of action until the new year as he is currently nursing a hand injury. His next challenger is likely Arman Tsarukyan, who is likely going to wait for the Russian to return before fighting again.
Michael Chandler hits back at critics who have teased him for waiting two years
Throughout the two years of waiting for a fight against McGregor, Chandler has been teased by not only fans but fellow fighters.
Despite the constant teasing from other fighters, Chandler believes any other fighter in his position would’ve done the exact same thing as him.
“It’s really funny, you’ve had a thousand fighters sit here across from you and talk to you doing interviews, and all of them who have said I was Conor’s little whipping boy or I was waiting too long or I was wasting my career, every single one of them would’ve held on to this Conor fight, even if publically they say they wouldn’t,” Chandler claimed.
In classic Chandler fashion, the former UFC title challenger has remained extremely positive throughout the whole process and has even stated that maybe it was a good thing that he had two years off to properly recover from several wars.
“I enjoyed myself, I needed some time away from this sport… Me being pulled out of the sport has given me a new lease on life and a new love for the sport,” Chandler stated.
