This past weekend at UFC 268, Michael Chandler (22-7) went to war with Justin Gaethje (23-3). The fight lived up to every ounce of hype it had and will be on the shortlist of fight of the year. Easily the fight could get inducted into the fight wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.
Both men hit the other which everything they had. They both had each other rocked and wobbled at various points in the fight. In the end, Justin Gaethje landed a little more and was able to win a decision, but in reality, there were no losers in this fight.
Michael Chandler’s stock doesn’t fall after suffering defeat at UFC 268. To me, he’s exactly where he was before the fight. Right in the mix of things and inside the top five of the UFC‘s lightweight division. This morning, Chandler made it clear what he wants next.
Chandler took to Twitter and made his callout for his return. Chandler said that he wanted a fight with former two-division UFC champion Conor McGregor (22-6) next. McGregor is currently rehabbing a broken leg that he suffered in his last fight.
Former UFC champion responds
After the callout, it didn’t take long for Conor McGregor to issue a response. The former champion is very active on Twitter and one had to think that he would respond. The only question would be the type of response.
Would we get the nice and respectful version of Conor McGregor? Or would the former UFC champion go right into the trash talk and mind games? McGregor was very respectful in his response that you can see below.
I mentioned this in the article this morning, but if you want a perfect fight on paper, it’s a fight between McGregor and Chandler. It’s a massive fight that can headline a UFC PPV and would satisfy the casuals and the hard core MMA fan base.
The only question would be around the UFC’s willingness to make the fight happen. For McGregor, there’s always the third fight with Nate Diaz. Or a matchup with Rafael Dos Anjos (a fight that would also make sense for Michael Chandler).
It’s important to remember that UFC 268 just was Saturday night and both men are going to need time. Chandler needs to recover from the war he was in while McGregor still needs to fully heal from the broken leg.
All that being said, these are two guys who the UFC organization loves. If Chandler wants this fight and McGregor wants this fight, it’s going to happen. Time will tell, but I think fans would be pretty satisfied if this fight were to happen in the late spring or early summer in 2022.