Eddie Alvarez thinks Michael Chandler is in for a rough night against Conor McGregor.
Currently, Chandler and McGregor are filming the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter opposite one another as coaches, setting up a fight between them later this year. The bout will be the Irishman’s first since shattering his leg against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264, but despite the long layoff, Alvarez predicts a difficult night for Chandler.
“If Mike Chandler didn’t wrestle, I would guess that it was because Alvarez stated on The MMA Hour . “If he stands with Conor, Conor’s going to knock him out. This is a bad match. Mike Chandler’s defense sucks. He doesn’t have good defense, boxing. He throws bombs, but Conor’s way too fast, way too quick to get hit with anything Mike Chandler is throwing. So I feel like, Mike should wrestle and wrestle quickly, and use that. And if he doesn’t, it’s going to be a bad night.”
Alvarez has a history with both men. He infamously lost his UFC lightweight title to McGregor at UFC 205. Also, he split two bouts in the Bellator lightweight title fight with Chandler in 2011 as well as 2013..
The series with Chandler remains some of the best fights of Alvarez’s career, and a potential trilogy bout has long been on the wish-lists of MMA fans. Fans had hoped that Alvarez would finally be able to fulfill their wishes after he split with ONE Championship. But instead Alvarez signed for BKFC and he blames Chandler.
“Mike Chandler ain’t s***,” Alvarez said. Just so everyone knows, so that all the fans right here know — I knew fans wanted to fight. I know wanted fans wanted me vs. Mike Chandler III. Let me tell you, it was my goal to get that fight done. I tried to make the fight happen. I’m not the one who is responsible.
” I tried three times to get that fight to take place, and it just wasn’t going to happen. The guy did not want me to fight him and it never happened. It’s not up to me.
“There was a point in my free agency where Chandler was becoming a free agent as well,” Alvarez continued. “I called them directly, him and his management, and said, ‘Let’s make this fight. Don’t re-sign with anyone, become a free agent.’ It was when I was leaving the UFC and he was about to get out of his Bellator contract. We had a casual conversation, he was excited about it, said, ‘Yeah, that’s a great idea,’ and he went back and re-signed with Bellator. A third fight could have brought in millions of dollars. We could have walked into three or four different promoter’s offices and did great. Bellator signed him for several hundred thousand dollars. Again, it was a chance to make this fight possible again.
” I did my part. … To be honest, I didn’t want to ask for the fight. I don’t know if it was my ego or whatever, but I didn’t want to ask for this fight, because I didn’t want to deal with what I had to deal with to ask for the fight. My wife was adamant that I didn’t make everything necessary to get the fight. I asked her to sit down with me and said, “Will you regret not asking for it?”
Instead, Alvarez moves on with his career as the former UFC lightweight champion makes his bareknuckle debut against Chad Mendes in the co-main event of BKFC 41 on April 21 in Broomfield, Colorado.
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2023/3/1/23620910/eddie-alvarez-predicts-conor-mcgregor-will-knock-out-michael-chandler-its-a-mismatch?rand=96749
