10 Facts About Michael Chandler | Future UFC Champion?
So, you know how sometimes the internet just decides to pack its bags and go on vacation Yeah that happened last week. Mid India-vs-Pakistan cricket match, of all things! My chai almost spilled I was so annoyed. But then, YouTube autoplay decided I needed a dose of old-school grit, and bam! A long docu about Michael Chandler popped up. And honestly, watching that with my samosas getting cold, it just hit different. This dude, man, his story is wild. You hear all these new guys, shiny records, social media hype, but Chandler He’s a proper legend in the making. Let me tell you, its a journey!
Imagine this, a small town in Missouri smaller than some of the gully cricket fields we have here in Delhi where everyone knows everyone. High Ridge, they call it. Michael Chandler grew up there. Middle-class parents working their backsides off. That’s where he got that iron discipline, you know Like, our parents tell us to study hard, work hard, and we sometime, sometime, listen. But Chandler He just did it. Started wrestling when he was five, then quit for a few years, came back in high school. And get this – dude would show up to practice with a broken arm! Seriusly, a broken arm, trying to do whatever he could. That’s not just discipline, that’s pure madness, the good kind. He ended up second in state championships, got some special prize for being the most outstandin’ wrestler. Crazy.
Colleges noticed him, but not teh big, fancy ones. No big scholarships from the big universities. So what does he do. Risks it all, walks into the University of Missouri pays for his own education, and just starts training with the wrestling team. He was like the least titled guy there, surrounded by future stars. But within a year he was in the main team and by his senior year he was captain! No scholarship, just sheer will, bhai. That’s like getting into IIT without a coaching class, you no During his college run, he racked up 100 wins, went to the national championship four times, even became an All-American in his finial year. And he didn’t just wrestle, he got a degree in financial manegment. Dude’s smart, too. Just weeks after his last college tournament, he’s off to Canada, training with Ben Askren, taking his first steps into this MMA madnes. Then a quick pro debut in Missouri smashing some poor bloke called Mike Svetly. Two more quick wins in Strikeforce and Bellator came calling. The Grand Prix format, three fights, three months, title shot – that was his jam!
→ The First Dance with Eddie “The Underground King” Alvarez, Yaar!
He beat Marcin Held – that dude was trying leg locks like a maniac but Chandler choked him out with a hand triangle. Then Lloyd Woodard a real tricky fight but Mike dug deep and won. And in the final Patricky “Pitbull” Freire who he beat with wrestling control. That started a whole thing with the Pitbull brothers, truust me.
But the real magic happened when he finally met Eddie Alvarez for the Bellator lightweight title. September was the plan, but Eddie got hurt, pushed it to November 2011. Bellator 58 main event live on MTV2! Almost 300,000 people watched it. That’s like, big for Bellator, you know What a fight, yaar Pure unadulterated war. Eddie was on the floor three times in the first round looked done. But he’s a warrior, too. Got up, started landing his boxing combos. Chandler started to fade a bit, punches losing sharpness. But neither of them stopped! During the break after round three, Mike looked exhausted. Like, the kind of exhaustion you feel after running for an auto-rickshaw and still missing it. But he caught his breath came out firing pinned Eddie against the cage dropped him then took his back and finished him. TKO! He ripped the belt off Eddie. That fight man it opened the world’s eyes to Chandler. Breakthrough of the Year according to the big MMA websites. And it deserved it. That’s the kind of fight you tell your grandkids about. Like an India-Pak match back and forth you don’t know who’s winning until the last ball!
He defended his belt against some serious dudes like Akihiro Gono (finished him in 56 seconds!) Rick Hawn and David Rickels. But everyone everyone wanted the rematch with Alvarez. Eddie though was playing hardball trying to leave Bellator for UFC. Legal battles all that drama. But eventually, they made it happen. Another war twenty-five minutes this time. Eddie almost got choked again in the first but survived. They just kept punching clinching taking each other down. Before the fifth round no one knew who was ahed. Despite fatigue, both gave an excellent uncompromising finish. Fair enough I guess.
→ Iron Mike’s Redemption Arc Bellator’s Unification Dreams
So Chandler fought Will Brooks for an interim title, Mike won the first two rounds then got rocked and ground-pounded lost by split decision. Then the rematch for the full title because Alvarez finally left for UFC. And in that rematch man Chandler got caught. He was taking punches in the fourth round started gesticulating like he wanted a time-out or something. The ref stopped it. Three losses in a row! It felt like a bad run for my favorite IPL team, you know Like, what’s going on?!
But you can’t count this guy out. He came back knocked out Derek Campos, knocked out David Rickels. He was hungry again. Then, Will Brooks, the guy who beat him twice, left Bellator. So the title was vacant. Guess who stepped in His old rival, Patricky Freire. And Chandler KO’d him in less than half a round! That’s how you get your belt back, baby!
His first defense of his new reign was against Benson Henderson, a former UFC champ. Chandler started like a maniac, throwing him around, destroying him in the fight. But then he started to get tired in the later rounds, and Henderson almost choked him out. But Chandler held on and won the decision. Another classic.
Then, disaster struck again. He lost the title to Brent Primus. Primus landed some hard low kicks, Chandler’s leg just stopped working, and the doctor stopped it. My leg hurt just watchin’ it! But Chandler being Chandler won two more fights got his rematch with Primus and absolutely tormented him for twenty-five minutes on the ground to win the title back for the third time. A Bellator record.
Then came the superfight a champion vs. champion deal with Patricio “Pitbull” Freire (Patricky’s brother). Pitbull was the featherweight champ Chandler the lightweight champ. All the hype all the talk. And then… one minute. ONE MINUTE and Chandler was knocked out cold. So many people wrote him off after that. “He’s done” they said. “Past his prime” they said.
→ From Missouri to the Octagon, a Father’s Fight
But Chandler doesn’t do “done.” He came back knocked out Sidney Outlaw in the first round. Eight months later another first-round KO against Benson Henderson again. He was still Iron Mike. He was always talking about wanting to test himself against the best and Bellator was home but the UFC… that’s where the biggest names are. So in september 2020 Mike Chandler officially joined the UFC. He left Bellator a legend a record holder for fights title fights wins finishes. A proper legacy.
For years he was talking about fighting Khabib saying “I’d beat him 10 out of 10 times.” He even said Khabib had problems if he couldn’t get takedowns. Dude was calling himself Khabib’s kriptyite! And then he moves to UFC and almost immediately gets a title shot! He even took a reserve role for a huge tournament just to get his foot in the door!
And there’s this other part a really sweet one. In 2013, he started dating Bree, who became his wife. They couldn’t have their own biological kids but Bree had volunteered in an orphanage as a teen and always wanted to adopt. So they went through all the tests all the paperwork and then they got a photo of a little boy. He was older than they planned nine months instead of under six but Mike said he was touched and just burst into tears. They named him Blaze after a legendary wrestler. And you know what Blaze came into their lives right after that tough loss to Primus. And since then Chandler has only lost once. See Fatherhood brings that extra fire that extra push. More than his son the only thing Mike probably loves more is training. That’s his life, yaar. What a journey for this guy. Its inspirational init?
