UFC President Dana White believes that a fight between Michael Chandler and Justin Gaethje makes sense. Currently, the lightweight division is as stacked as it’s ever been.
In the past, both Chandler and Gathje spoke about liking the idea of fighting one another. For Gaethje, he was almost sure that the UFC would bring the bout agreement to him before “Iron” Mike fought Charles Oliveira, the current lightweight champion. And for Chandler, he showed an early interest in fighting Gaethje to prove who the most violent fighter on the planet was.
Dana White Speaks on Gaethje vs. Chandler
In a recent interview with TMZ Sports, Dana White spoke about the lightweight division. Although he didn’t set a matchup in stone, Dana indicated that making Gaethje vs. Chandler would make sense for the organization.
“That’s a good question,” White said in response to possible matchups for Michael Chandler. “I mean, there’s a few opportunities. He could fight Gaethje, we’ll see. We don’t have anything done yet but that makes sense and that’d be a fun fight. Imagine Chandler and Gaethje,” he finished.
Potential Previous Matchmaking
In March, ESPN MMA reporter Ariel Helwani reported that a fight between Chandler and Gaethje was in the works. Gaethje began to prepare for the contest and was nearly sure that he would face Mike on May 15th, which turned out to be UFC 262, which Chandler fought Oliveira.
Gaethje is coming off of a loss against a previous champion in Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254. Chandler is also coming off a loss against a current champion, although he and Charles fought for a vacant title due to Nurmagomedov’s retirement.
Currently, there’s no timetable on when the potential fight could happen. But, the current state of the lightweight division would make it impossible to see non-exciting fights happen to anyone currently ranked in the top 10.
