- Michael Chandler shared his honest take on being booked against Tony Ferguson
- “Iron” is confident he could beat “El Cucuy”
Coming off back-to-back defeats against the two best lightweights in the world, Michael Chandler is looking to get back to his winning ways. He is now slated for a showdown with fellow veteran Tony Ferguson and though both of them have gone on a skid, Chandler is still excited about it.
No regrets
In a recent talk with DC & RC podcast, Chandler candidly spoke about his thoughts on taking on Ferguson, a fighter who has gone winless in three consecutive fights and seemingly declining.
According to “Iron,” it just so happened that most of the top guys in the division are already “tied up” and he was left with “El Cucuy.” Nevertheless, he doesn’t think it will be a step back, considering he just fought the reigning champion Charles Oliveira and the current title contender Justin Gaethje.
“I don’t [feel like it’s a step back],” Chandler said of Ferguson fight. “Because we’re all governed by time and circumstance. If you look at the division, a lot of guys are tied up. You got [Dustin] Poirier talking about going up to 170 to fight [Nate] Diaz, Beneil Dariush and [Islam] Makhachev are scheduled to fight each other, Conor [McGregor] possibly coming back, obviously we got the title fight with [Justin] Gaethje and [Charles] Oliveira happening on May 7. So Tony Ferguson has always been a perennial top guy.”
“Extremely dangerous” but “winnable”
Chandler also emphasized that Ferguson is still “extremely dangerous” despite not being in his peak form in the late. Regardless of what form of Ferguson will show up in their fight, the 36-year-old is certain he could beat him.
We’re only a couple years removed from that illustrious 12-fight win streak that he was on, when he looked unbeatable, possibly could’ve even beaten Khabib [Nurmagomedov]. There’s a lot of who were picking him to beat Khabib. Would that have happened? We don’t know because we never saw it but I see Tony Ferguson as a guy who is still extremely dangerous, still always performs well even when he runs into the toughest guys in the division,” Chandler explained.
“That’s what we’re doing,” he continued. “And when you’re fighting the toughest guys in the division, you’re gonna take losses. You could beat anybody on a given night and you can lose to any of these guys on any given night. He’s lost a couple but I’m excited to go out there, I don’t necessarily think it’s a step back but it’s a winnable fight that’s for darn sure.”
Chandler and Ferguson may be ageing now but once they get inside that cage come May 7 at UFC 274, it’s gonna be a dog fight.
