Michael Chandler on Conor McGregor: “[He wants to] go fight an easier fight
Michael Chandler is not letting Conor McGregor off the hook. After the two coaches season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter, a fight between the two seemed imminent. But that season ended on August 15, 2023 and the fight between Chandler and McGregor is nowhere to be found.
Appearing in Steve-O’s Wild Ride, Michael Chandler had some major criticisms of the former two division champion.
Michael Chandler: It looks really bad on everyone’s part
In speaking with Steve-O, Michael Chandler cuts his promo as Chandler likes to do. He believes that Conor McGregor is waiting him out to get more of a tune up fight. He pitches a Nate Diaz trilogy who floated a return to the UFC at UFC 300.
UFC 300 would be tight but there’s nobody to fight
— Nathan Diaz (@NateDiaz209) December 23, 2023
“I think right now he’s trying to wait me out,” Chandler said. “I mean, because if you were him, would you want to wait as long as possible for the guy like me, who’s a real fighter, who wants to be in there, who wants to compete so that I say, ‘Screw it, I’m gonna go fight someone else’ and then he can go fight an easier fight: Nate Diaz.”
Chandler continues saying that returning against him isn’t the best idea for McGregor. Chandler doesn’t fault McGregor and his team, but he does point out its pitfall.
“It looks really bad on everyone’s part if Conor comes back and doesn’t fight me,” Chandler said. “Conor can try to come back and act like he runs the show and say, ‘I want to fight this guy, I want to fight that guy,’ which if I was in his position, if I was his manager, I would be trying to do the same thing because fighting me is not the smartest fight.”
At the end of the day, there’s a lot of factors that go into McGregor returning from his leg break against Dustin Poirier. The return of a superstar is a delicate task and has to be done right. That on top of McGregor’s frustrations expressed at the Saudi Arabia boxing event this weekend don’t bode well for a return any time soon.
