Does Michael Chandler care more about winning or putting on a show?
That’s the million-dollar question Teddy Atlas is dying to know about the former Bellator champion.
While he hasn’t been in the win column since knocking out Tony Ferguson ‘300’ style, Michael Chandler still remains one of the most exciting fighters on the UFC roster today. Chandler has five performance bonuses in his six appearances, coming off back-to-back ‘fight of the nights’ at UFC 309.
Following losses to Dustin Poirier and Charles Oliveira, Chandler looks to show out against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 314 this Saturday.
Chandler is currently 2-4 in the UFC lightweight division.
Teddy Atlas questions Michael Chandler about the cost of winning
Despite what’s written on paper, the always-exciting Chandler reminds boxing icon Teddy Atlas of one of his favorite fighters in Arturo Gatti.
Like the late boxer, Atlas said Chandler fights with ‘all heart’ when he steps into the Octagon.
“One of the rarities in any sport and in my sport, win or lose, it almost didn’t matter,” Atlas told Chandler in an interview with ESPN. “People just wanna see you because of what you gave them.”
This led Atlas to ask Chandler about the cost of winning.
“This to me is the million dollar question: Is it more important to Michael Chandler to win or to leave that arena with the people feeling that way?”
MMA is more than winning for Michael Chandler but…
Chandler, a fan-favorite at heart with wars dating back to Eddie Alvarez in Bellator, responded to Atlas.
“It’s a very interesting question,” Chandler pondered.
“You wanna win, right? But there’s something that happens when that cage door closes or you go through the ropes and then the ‘ding-ding’ goes.”
In the past, Chandler has said delivering for the fans’ entertainment has gotten in the way of him winning, throwing caution to the wind instead of calculating the best strategy.
“It wasn’t always thinking about the techniques,” Chandler said. “It wasn’t always thinking about, how do I win? It was always just like, how do I give my full self to this wrestling match? How do I get my full self to this fight?
“I admit maybe to some of my hardcore fans who really wanna see me win, it’s probably not the best strategy sometimes,” Chandler said.
“But I’ve also only lost to the number two or three ranked guy in the world. Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Dustin Poirier… the toughest guys in the entire world.
“All of them are fight of the night, fight of the year, but April 12, I get to win,” Chandler said of his upcoming fight with Paddy Pimblett.
