Michael Chandler certainly wants to fight Conor McGregor – but he wants to make sure the Irishman is at 100 percent when it happens.
Michael Chandler Wants Conor McGregor Fully Healthy
Chandler was recently a guest on ex-UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub’s show, “Food Truck Diaries,” in which they discussed his next move at lightweight.
During the interview, Chandler again doubled down on his desire to fight against Conor McGregor. However, Chandler was fully understanding about McGregor’s current injury status.
When the fight does happen between Chandler and McGregor, the former wants the Irishman at full health, so he doesn’t want him to rush his injury recovery for a potential clash inside the Octagon.
“You’ve seen my handling of Conor,” Chandler said. “At some point – Do I want to fight the guy? Of course. But we do have to cut Conor a little bit of slack.
“He broke his leg in half. And everybody is calling him names and everybody is calling him out and doing all of this stuff. Everybody wants the fight. But also at the same time, let the guy recover.
“Let the guy – the sport of mixed martial arts – and especially the lightweight division – is better when Conor McGregor is part of it. But he needs to come back at the right time and not rush it.
“So, you got him out and if you’re talking about Charles [Oliveira] who wants a big money fight, he’s minced no words, he wants the big money fight, he thinks he deserves it and I’m like, that’s cool, do that. You deserve it. But when’s he coming back?”
Chandler’s last outing inside of the Octagon was extremely impressive. He became the first-ever man to knock Tony Ferguson out unconscious. This came in the opening moments of the second round of their UFC 274 clash this past May.
He pulled it off via a hellacious front-kick to the face. After the fight, Chandler cut an amazing promo calling out “The Notorious.” McGregor has since reciprocated interest in the fight, however, he likely won’t be ready to compete until the end of this year, or early 2023.
