Dana White Clues Possible UFC Fight Island Debut For Michael Chandler
In late September, former three-time Bellator lightweight best, Michael Chandler ended his ten-year, gold-laden stay with the promotion – penning a multi-fight deal with rival organization, the UFC.
While the Sanford MMA staple has yet to be booked for his promotional debut, UFC president, Dana White has recently insisted that there is not a rush to get the Missouri native booked for his first Octagon outing.
Chandler, 34, travelled to ‘Fight Island’ in Abu Dhabi, UAE in October, making championship weight as a possible backup to the as scheduled lightweight title unification clash between Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov, and then interim titleholder, Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje. With his services deemed unrequired, Chandler switched his attentions, and openly voiced his willingness to clash with another former interim gold holder, Tony ‘El Cucuy’ Ferguson.
The decorated amateur wrestler, along with Ferguson openly discussed and called for the potential pairing, with the above-mentioned White holding no qualms regarding that possible clash.
A would-be matchup ultimately hit a snag a number of weeks ago, however, with Chandler detailing how he was eager to meet with Ferguson on January 23 – in the co-main event of UFC 257 beneath a lightweight re-run between former titleholders, Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier, and ‘The Notorious’ Conor McGregor.
With Ferguson keen on a December 12 UFC 256 outing instead, the promotion eventually looked to the streaking grappling ace, Charles ‘Do Bronx’ Oliveira, who now clashes with the Oxnard native in a couple of weeks time.
Speaking with reporters gathered following UFC Vegas 15 on Saturday, White touched on the topic of Chandler’s possible debut, pointing to a need for his body to recover following the recent weight-cut, before hinting as a potential outing for the latter at an upcoming ‘Fight Island’ event.
The problem with Michael Chandler right not is he stepped up for that [Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Justin Gaethje] fight and he cut weight, so he can’t turn around as fast as these other guys can right now,” White said. “We can’t do that to him. So, no hurry, take his time, get his body back together. We’ll get him something soon.“
“Once we go back to Abu Dhabi (UAE), there’s going to be a lot of big fights coming up here, so he’ll be a part of something.“
It would seem that Chandler has his lightweight debut options limited to the feature recent, Gaethje, or New Zealand striker, Dan ‘The Hangman’ Hooker, with the 34-year-old also claiming he started preparations for his debut outing, last week.
