UFC boss Dana White ‘definitely’ interested in signing free agent Michael Chandler – ‘that guy’s earned it’
- White says he would ‘love’ to talk to former Bellator champ and free agent Chandler
- Chandler thinks a fight with UFC interim lightweight champ Gaethje would be the ‘greatest of all time’
Michael Chandler has been making noise about finally joining the UFC – and Dana White is keen on having a conversation.
The former Bellator lightweight champ became a free agent after knocking out former UFC champ Benson Henderson in the first round at Bellator 243 last weekend.
“My phone’s on,” he said after the fight. “It’s gonna be interesting couple of weeks. Every single lightweight is on notice now. Every lightweight in the top 10 is on the clock. I’m a guy who’s been on the outside of this sport looking in, scheming, plotting his next big move. We’ll see what happens.”
“I would love to meet with him,” White said at the UFC 252 post-event press conference inside the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on Saturday night. “That guy’s earned it, man. Would love to talk to him.”
“That’s my favourite fight,” Chandler said. “That one right there, because we’re gonna run sprints. I will have never sprinted towards anybody so fast in my entire life than I would Justin Gaethje. We’d meet right in the middle, we’d fight fire with fire.
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“I think I’ve always been a better competitor than him. I was in wrestling, I am in mixed martial arts, I’m a fan of his style. I’m even a fan of him cleaning up his style a little bit and being a little bit more technical and diplomatic with his style. So I think the last Justin Gaethje that we saw against Tony Ferguson was the best Justin Gaethje we’ve ever seen, and I would love to face that Justin Gaethje, and I would love to mix it up [with] him.
“That one right there I think would be, if I did finish him, would be late, late in the fifth, just like Eddie [Alvarez] did,” Chandler added. “I believe it was Eddie, finished him late in the third or late in the fifth because Justin Gaethje does not go down quick. But that right there would probably be the most exciting fight in the entire lightweight division.
“That right there, Chandler vs Gaethje, may be the greatest fight, the most exciting fight, that MMA fans have ever seen. Better than my fights with Eddie Alvarez, better than all the other fights that are in your top five. Chandler vs Gaethje is the most exciting mixed martial arts fight of all time.”
