Michael Chandler joins Ashley Brewer on SportsCenter to discuss the announcement of him coaching the next season of The …
Michael Chandler now joining SportsCenter Michael welcome to the show thanks for joining us how you doing thank you for having me goodness gracious you just gave me goosebumps with that promo let’s go baby this is the coolest full circle moment because we sat on the desk together on the UFC 274 post show in Phoenix you had just knocked out Tony Ferguson on that show you said I want Conor McGregor it’s now come to fruition you two will fight later this year why is facing McGregor the right fight for you at this point in your career I think it’s just perfect you know as mixed martial artists when we get into the sport we want the brightest lights the biggest opportunities the biggest stages of Our Lives of course we want to provide for our families we want to make a career out of this but you want to make people feel something with your performances and you want to get to the Pinnacle which is the most amount of eyeballs the most amount of attention and the most amount of intrigue fighting Conor McGregor inside the UFC Octagon live on pay-per-view is the Pinnacle of the sport of mixed martial arts I want that big stage I’ve been fighting for it for the last almost 15 years now and it’s finally come full circle finally come to fruition and I couldn’t be more excited I can’t not wait to do it and also leading up to that with the Ultimate Fighter on ESPN right before yeah you couldn’t ask for a better show Mystic Mike has made the prediction for this fight you’re expecting a second round knockout how will you make that happen I do I think first round I’m going to get in his face right away keep my foot on the gas pedal make him second guess himself make him make make him take steps backwards right away um after that first round it finishes I come off the stool meet him in the center of the octagon and I land something after he slowed down a little bit after I’ve gotten my range a little bit um that’s my prediction hopefully it comes to fruition if not it might be a knock down drag out war in the bit and the fans will be the beneficiary imagine that does happen we’ll be replaying that on this show and be like he actually has a gift um Mystic Mike it’s work before it might work again okay let’s talk about Connor Connor is an interesting story he stepped away from the UFC since that injury suffered in the Dustin Poirier loss since then the dude has been enjoying life he’s been acting acting he’s been focusing on businesses he’s been on Yachts he’s been doing it all do you feel that you have an advantage because of this long layoff he’s had I do think so you know I have been very active you know I just signed with the promotion a little over two years ago and I have fought the who’s who the toughest strength of schedule that maybe anybody ever has coming into the UFC I have fought no less than anybody ranked uh outside of the top five fought for a title some UPS some Downs non-stop action and violence and me staying extremely active Conor has had the luxury of stepping away from the sport because he has a very padded bank account he does live a life of luxury but we can’t make the mistake of thinking that Conor McGregor has lost his passion for mixed martial arts he loves the attention he loves the cameras he loves the competition he loves the blood and guts in the training of mixed martial arts it’s his first love it was the one thing that has gotten him from laying on a couch being a plumber on welfare in Ireland and turned him into not just a worldwide worldwide icon but a multi-multi-millionaire so he has the sport of mixed martial arts his first love to thank for that so I think we’re going to see a very motivated guy also too as we mentioned on ESPN we’re doing The Ultimate Fighter Team Chandler versus Team McGregor he’s going to be immersed in that house on ESPN for weeks on end seeing these young Fighters their dreams hopefully come into fruition he gets to coach them he gets to be around them he gets to impact them I think we’re going to see a Nostalgia of Conor McGregor he’s going to find his roots again and I’m expecting the best Conor we’ve ever seen as I said I want him at his biggest I want him at his best and I want him at his most dangerous at 170 pounds later on this year live on pay-per-view that’s right let’s talk about The Ultimate Fighter because you guys leading into this fight will be coaching in The Ultimate Fighter you got a group of guys that you’re going to be a part of their Journey helping make them better what are you looking forward to most about this opportunity honestly I the the thing I’m looking the most forward to is just the ups and the downs and the unexpected turns that this whole thing is going to be you know we have this we have this View and this vision and this expectation of what it could be and how long it’s going to be and how many guys or gals you’re going to have on your team um how well we’re going to do I know right now the competition for me starts right now I want to get in Conor’s head right now I want to prove not this I’m a better fighter than him later on down the line but that I’m a better Coach than him I’m a better leader than him I’m a better motivator than him to win this to have my my team or a a individual on my team win this UFC UFC contract to be The Ultimate Fighter um as I said when it comes to expectations we don’t know which Conor we’re going to see we’ve seen the loudmouth Brash trash talking in your face Conor before we’ve also seen a respectful Conor before and the Connor you get on Monday might be different than the Conor you get on Tuesday and then very different than the one you get on Wednesday so I can’t have expectations I I’m excited for for the tension the animosity the competition and everybody across the world gets to see it on Tuesday nights I think they said it is right here on ESPN and it’s going to be a blast I did want to ask you about that Connor has been reserved has been a little bit more business-like and you guys actually have a lot of respect for each other I’ve seen the tweets you guys have definitely shared respects how do you think you would handle if he does start to trash talk you coming up to this fight uh it’s it’s a challenge that I am I am excited and willfully throwing myself into um I have visualized it I have uh I have thought about it you know we we loved Conor when we talk about we you know the people that respect him the people that have watched him for all these years we’ve loved Conor because he’s interesting because he’s interested rest assured he’s doing his homework right now on me he knows how many times I’ve lost he knows who I’ve lost to he’s no he knows right now in what former fashion I have lost he knows what the chinks in my armor are he knows where and going back and watching other interviews where I might have doubts and securities he knows all of these things he loves to do his his homework on opponents he loves to well up old emotions and make them brand new and make you trip over yourself live on TV so um I’m expecting that he’s a witty he’s a witty guy with a wicked tongue and he’s got the Gift of Gab but I’m really really excited to Fight Fire with Fire in that regard I’m excited for the tension the competition the linguistic uh battles that we’re going to get into and the you know the friendly competition as you said the respectful competition you know make no mistake I I respect Conor for what he has done for the sport I respect him for the life that he has built for him and his family the Legacy that he will have when he does step away from the sport um but I’m coming for uh I’m Coming For That win later on down the line uh on pay-per-view and especially right now as I said the competition starts right now I’m already studying old seasons of The Ultimate Fighter in the past history season prior against Uriah Faber years ago watching the way that he carried himself watching the the um kind of the Ebbs and flows of how this show goes so we can give we can give the fans what they want on uh on those nights when it’s on ESPN as well as build this thing and build this tension yeah I saw a little clip of him wearing his Gucci python shoes when he was uh facing a Uriah Firebird so it’ll be interesting to see what he wears now with a lot more money in his bank account um let’s talk about your training as you said you’ve started to really prepare and look into what you will be facing how will this training camp be different from others in the past you know uh there will be little tweaks here and there but for the most part I really do just keep the main thing the main thing I think too too often in whatever vocation that we choose in life we think well I had a loss or a suffered a setback here so I need to make a lot of big changes a lot of times it’s just a little little bitty small changes that you can you can make each day that add up to the big results so for me I focus 90 on myself and how I can get better how I can become more dangerous how I can be more efficient and effective inside of the octagon and then Focus that last 10 percent on Connor we know who Conor is we’ve watched him fight um we know what habits and tendencies and idiosyncrasies he has inside of the Octagon we know what his strengths are and we also know where we can exploit his weaknesses on the other side he knows the exact same things about me so um it’s going to be a lot of the same thing I’ll be training with my team down in Florida the good thing is I will have some of my coaches in Vegas while we’re while we’re fighting we can already start the game plan now in February March leading up to this later on in the year fight um that we’re going to have obviously this the show of The Ultimate Fighter is going to end in August so I would anticipate us fighting sometime September October November if you will because you don’t want to get it too far past the ending of the show so we get to start preparing right now start taking notes right now start going back and looking at him peeling back the layers of who Conor is watch all of his performances watch where he has been exploited and where his weaknesses are and I expect to get my hand raised in dominant fashion later on this year on pay-per-view all right so big lightweight fight for the belt this week in between Islam mahachiev and Alexander volkanovsky Michael Chandler how do you see this fight playing out man I have been asked about this now numerous times and as I’ve said previously I feel like almost every time I answer it I’m changing my tune because one time I say Islam mahajev who knows exactly what he wants to do he wants to go in there get in volkanovsky’s face pick him up put him down and wear him down and look for the submission and ground and pound on the flip side of that we know that volkanovsky is the most well-rounded and most most well-versed athlete in the in the sport of mixed martial arts in my opinion if volcanovsky needs to make needs to defend those takedowns I think he can in a lot of instances when it comes to a stand-up battle volkanovsky is so much more well versed so much more well-rounded so much more dangerous so the question remains can can Islam mahatchee do what he knows he has to do to win this fight and can volkanovsky thwart off Islam’s attacks to take him down pick him up put him down and go for that submission and grounding pound if I was a betting man I’d give the slight slight favorite to volkanovsky’s versatility Swiss army knife of mixed martial arts capabilities his cardio and and most importantly I think his fight IQ I think he can withstand the takedowns of Islam even if Islam does take him down uh volkanovski is a bear to to hold down he’s going to use the cage wall he’s going to get up and then he’s going to start putting a beating on him Islam so if I had to give a slight Edge it’s volcanovsky and when I say slight it is slight because Islam is a man on a mission he’s out to prove that he wasn’t just habib’s underling he wasn’t just khabib nurmagomedov’s um under uh little brother if you will and training partner he wants to be Islam the champion of the world he wants to say there is a lightweight champion in the UFC and his name is Islam mahachiev so the man is on a mission but if I had to give a slight Edge I would give it to volkanovsky man we are so looking forward to it and we are so looking forward to The Ultimate Fighter coming out in May on ESPN plus and then seeing you Michael Chandler facing Conor McGregor in the Octagon later this year enjoy the ride good luck we’re rooting for you and thanks so much for coming on SportsCenter thank you so much pull your hat down tight because we’re about to have a wild year thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus