So many times in MMA, in sports, and in life in general, we go into something with expectations that are so high, that it is virtually impossible for those expectations to be satisfied. Those were the types of expectations being put onto the Justin Gaethje versus Michael Chandler fight this past Saturday. Fortunately for us, this fight not only met the expectations, but surpassed them in spectacular fashion. It goes without saying that this was the fight of the night, but what an experience it truly was. I sat with my family in my living room and it was a great atmosphere with only the 5 of us in here, so I can only imagine what it would have been like with a group or in the arena. If you didn't see the fight, you missed a back and forth battle that took place almost entirely on the feet. I thought for sure that Chandler would try to wrestle Gaethje more given how devastating Gaethje can be in the stand up and with Chandler coming off of a knockout loss, I figured he may not want to get his chin tested as early and often as he did. I was wrong with that one as there was only a few takedown attempts from Chandler and they largely went nowhere for him. He had one big slam later in the fight, but Gaethje was almost immediately able to scramble back to his feet. I think everyone mostly agrees that Gaethje should have got the decision victory, which he did, but I don't even think it was a bad performance by Chandler at all. I do feel like part of him got sucked into wanting to make this fight a war and live up to the hype, but against so many other opponents, what he did Saturday would have gotten him the win. Some may suggest that he should have tried to grind out win with more wrestling and they would probably be right because trading in the pocket with Justin Gaethje isn't the best idea, but it's not like he didn't try. Gaethje was just able to neutralize the wrestling for the most part and Chandler went away from it because it was taking a lot of his energy for something that wasn't really doing him any good. We got to see a great fight between two great competitors and I'm just happy that it delivered on what was promised. If you're a returning reader, you know that my fallout posts largely are based on what the outcome meant for each fighter, so that's where I'll go from here, but at least for this fight, I have a little more to say about their individual performance within that.
This time, I'll actually start with the winner because I feel like there's just less to say. This was largely what we've come to expect from Justin Gaethje. He did get a little reckless, which Trevor Wittman has tried hard to get him to stop doing, but I don't even think it was all his fault in this one. Chandler really put the pressure on early and was throwing big shots. He basically forced Gaethje into a fire fight and he couldn't really help himself. We saw everything we really expected to see from Gaethje in this one. We got the electric power in his hands and the debilitating leg kicks, which I think was a huge factor in him pulling away late in the fight. I largely like what I saw from Gaethje, especially with his chin and cardio holding up through the pressure and power of Chandler. To me, the only option for Gaethje next is the title shot. I was someone who thought that it is possible for Islam Makhachev to jump Gaethje and find himself in the title fight instead and Justin Gaethje put all of that to bed this past weekend. That was a performance that was more than worthy of the next title shot against the winner of the Oliveira vs Poirier fight on December 11. I think that leaves Islam Makhachev to fight Beneil Dariush in a number one contenders fight along the same timeline as whenever Gaethje fights for the title in maybe April or May. I think that's really all I have for Justin Gaethje. He showed a lot of positives and it is clear to me now that he deserves the title shot next.
That leaves us to discuss Michael Chandler. Even though he lost, I actually saw a lot of positives for Chandler. The most important thing is that is chin held up over 3 hard rounds with Justin Gaethje. As he's reached his mid 30s, we've seen Chandler be knocked out more than a couple times now, with the last coming against Charles Oliveira, who isn't known for his power or striking acumen. With that being the last time we saw Chandler, I wasn't really expecting him to be able to eat too many shots on the chin from Gaethje, but he held up pretty well. He was dropped by an uppercut in the second round, but was able to hang on and recover enough to survive the rest of the fight. Even as he's aged, Chandler's power, explosiveness, and athleticism are still amongst the best in the division. Despite having lost two in a row, I'm not down on Chandler at all. He's lost to, at worst, 2 of the 4 best lightweights in the UFC. To discuss what's next for Chandler will require us to speculate as to what goals Chandler has left for the rest of his career. I brought up this same point when I talked about Jan Blachowicz last week, but for Jan, the decision is kind of made for him. The key is if Chandler wants to do everything possible to work back to a title shot or if he wants to put on the biggest fights possible to put on a show for the fans and make the biggest paychecks that he can. We saw him call out Conor McGregor in the days following the fight and I think that would actually be a really good fight for Chandler because it kind of puts him on both tracks at the same time. I don't need to explain that Conor McGregor is still the biggest fight in the sport and would mean a huge pay day for anyone who gets in the cage with him. I think Chandler would be an attractive option for McGregor as Chandler already comes with his own fan base and hype, meaning Conor won't have to work as hard to sell it. However, I think this is the step back in competition that Chandler needs. Whether he actually deserves it or not is a conversation for a different day, but Conor is still a somewhat highly ranked opponent, 9th at the time of this writing. A win over McGregor would set Chandler up for another top 6 fight to really get back into the title picture. Additionally, I think this would be a great matchup for Chandler. It's sort of what Chael Sonnen always says in his videos. You want the easiest fight for the biggest paycheck in the highest placement on the card. That's not to say that I think Conor is completely washed up because I don't believe that, but Chandler would have a lot of advantages over him. Most importantly, he would have a wrestling and cardio advantage and if his chin can hold up like we saw against Gaethje, I think it's his fight to lose.
I think fighting Conor next would make so much sense for Chandler and he should really be pushing hard for it when McGregor is set to return from his leg injury. I did say that the Conor is perfect for Chandler because it doesn't really make him choose a path, but he will have to eventually, so what do those look like? Obviously a loss in the proposed Conor fight would change things, but I don't think that's a fight that Chandler would lose. If he just wants to put on big, exciting fights with big paychecks, there are options for Chandler. Tony Ferguson is probably the one that stands out the most just because they're already at the same weight, but if he and the UFC are willing to move around weight classes, things can get more interesting. I don't think Chandler could go down in weight, which would probably rule out any sort of fight with featherweights or Henry Cejudo, as interesting as those would be. He could go up and look at potential fights with Nate Diaz, Colby Covington, or a BMF title fight with Jorge Masvidal. After listing all of those, I don't really think that's the right path for Chandler. His losses have come to opponents at such a high level that I don't really think he needs to take his eyes off of the title just yet. If Chandler were to take a fight with someone also coming off a loss to try and switch his momentum, I think that would be his best course of action. Of course Conor is there, but so is Tony Ferguson, even though I don't like that fight for Tony. A win over Rafael Dos Anjos would be a really nice win to put on his resume and that could set him up for a fight in the top 4 again. I'm sure the UFC would give it to him if he really pushed for it, but a matchup with Islam Makhachev or Beneil Dariush would go a long way towards getting him back to his championship asperations. As you can see, there's really no shortage of options for Michael Chandler and his next move is an important one.
If you forced me to sort of make a list of the best options for him, I think it would be: Conor and RDA at the top. To me, those fights do the most for both Chandler and for me as a fan. I don't want to see him fight Tony right now as a fan because Tony is sliding and I would like to see him get a better matchup. As a fan, the Islam fight would be great, but I don't know how Chandler would feel about taking on a surging Makhachev after losing two in a row. I'm not ready for him to just put on fun fights with Diaz or Masvidal yet because I think he has a lot more left in the tank for a serious push. What do you guys think? What do you want to see next for Michael Chandler? Everyone has just accepted that Gaethje is next for the title, right? What did you think of the fight and the card as a whole? Let me know in the comments and be on the look out for more UFC 268 recap and fallout themed posts.
Comments
Post a Comment