Michael Chandler has been in the same position as Tony Ferguson ahead of their fight at UFC 274.
It was just under eight years ago that Chandler suffered his third loss in a row and it suddenly appeared that the luster around the ex-Bellator lightweight champion had been dimmed in dramatic fashion. Of course, Chandler bounced back rather emphatically with a 9-2 record over his next 11 fights before eventually signing a lucrative deal to join the roster at the UFC.
Now Chandler is approaching a fight with Ferguson where the one-time UFC interim lightweight champion is also looking to get back on track after three straight losses including a TKO suffered against Justin Gaethje and a pair of lopsided decisions with Charles Oliveira and Beneil Dariush.
” I would think his track record so far indicates that he may have lost a step, but it’s not enough to just look at his records and conclude that he lost his three last fights,” Chandler said to MMA Fighting. Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje are some of the best fighters in the world. When we’re fighting up at the top of the division doing this round-robin against the best guys on the planet at 155 pounds, you’re going to win some, you’re going to lose some and every now and again, you’re going to lose a couple in a row just like I have.
“I have lost a step after I dropped two consecutive steps? Charles Oliveira lost one and Justin Gaethje dropped one. I don’t know, it remains to be seen but I will say this, we’re fighting the best guys in the world. Any of the top five or seven fighters could take on anyone and win, making them world champions. This is how .”
close many of these men are.
Obwohl Chandler dropped two consecutive fights, his defeat to Oliveira was a result of him nearly finishing the UFC lightweight champion in round one. He then engaged in MMA Fighting’s 2021 Fight Of The Year with Gaethje.
Meanwhile, Ferguson absorbed 143 significant strikes against Gaethje before suffering a fifth-round stoppage. Oliveira almost tripled Ferguson’s strikes landed, and he kept over 11 seconds of control with three submission attempts. Dariush managed over 12minutes of control time during a three-round fight.
Ferguson lost his last 12 consecutive round while taking in a total of 305 hits over three fights.
Still, Chandler is hesitant to declare Ferguson past his prime but he’s more than ready to pour on the punishment when they clash on May 7 to find out for certain.
” “You have to go back and look at the Justin Gaethje fight. Tony did a lot of damage,” Chandler stated. He did take some damage but it was not enough to defeat Oliveira. When you talk about me, you should know that I am slinging leather. I want to seperate you from your consciousness. Every punch, kick and kick I make is intended to cause the most damage.
“I think it’s a recipe for Tony Ferguson having a pretty rough night. It’s a recipe for me going out there, getting a finish or putting on a dominant performance but you can never count Tony out. He’s a scary, scary man. He doesn’t really have an off switch. Even Justin Gaethje couldn’t really shut the off switch off. Although he was conscious and still moving, he could not shut off the switch. Tony Ferguson is just that dude.”
Even if Ferguson is still capable of taking a punch, Chandler realizes that there are still defensive deficiencies that have haunted the 38-year-old lightweight long before now.
“I think I am a very dangerous opponent not just for anybody but definitely a guy like Tony Ferguson, who’s there to be hit,” Chandler explained. I think that Tony moves a bit faster than some other guys. Tony is straight-forward and willing to help, but he takes the time to get a good slicing elbow. He’s going to fighting with razor blades trying to cut me open but I’m fighting with a sledgehammer trying to knock him out.
“Guys take shots and some of them get timid. Guys get hit pretty hard, they start to second guess things. They pull themselves out of the fire instead of pushing themselves into those exchanges. That’s one thing about Tony Ferguson. Tony Ferguson has never shied from the fight .”
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It all amounts to Chandler’s next possible Fight of the Night. He embraces these expectations and expects Ferguson to do the same.
” “It’s an fight that scares my a bit because Tony is a bit crazy, but these are the guys I want fight,” Chandler stated.
“It doesn’t matter whether Tony Ferguson has a 10-fight winning streak or a 10-fight losing streak. I prepare like Superman. Preparing like he is the best Tony Ferguson we’ve ever seen.”
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