Chandler is champ material

CPH

CPH

street lethal
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He might never get that belt but what a great champ he would be. I have been impressed with every one of his public speaking appearances and the post-fight presser in particular. Not just an elite LW, but also extremely likeable/sellable. Does any one of you filthy basement-dwellers not like this guy?
 
Great grappler, Wild striker but big power, defense is EHHHH and chin isn’t the best.

Good guy and top level contender. Don’t believe he’s really champ material though. A guy like Dustin would piece him up pretty badly imo. Even Justin might outclass the guy
 
He would be a great champ but so will Oliviera. The UFC is his house. He basically grew up in the UFC. You think he would just stand by and let Chandler beat him to become champ after two fights?

Nah not today
 
He lost, but showed that he is an elite talent.

A bit long in the tooth for LW and somewhat chinny though, which is concerning.
 
Final Say said:
Great grappler, Wild striker but big power, defense is EHHHH and chin isn’t the best.

Good guy and top level contender. Don’t believe he’s really champ material though. A guy like Dustin would piece him up pretty badly imo. Even Justin might outclass the guy
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Keep in mind: none of the current top contenders were considered remotely worthy just a couple of years ago. Gaethje was considered a wild brawler, Poirier a chinny, mentally-fragile also-ran, Dariush a respected top 15 guy at best, Oliveira same.
 
He brings it that’s for sure.
 
Agreed. Chandler covered himself in glory last night and genuinely just got caught. We might look back on this as the hardest Oliveira was pushed during a long title reign, it’s possible.

Personally I think Chandler should wait and go after Conor, presuming Dustin wins again, because I don’t see any way Mcgregor avoids being practically decapitated by Mike’s heavy hands.
His grappling was really good too, to latch onto a tight guillotine, escape back control and wail on Oliveria is mighty impressive
 
Final Say said:
Great grappler, Wild striker but big power, defense is EHHHH and chin isn’t the best.

Good guy and top level contender. Don’t believe he’s really champ material though. A guy like Dustin would piece him up pretty badly imo. Even Justin might outclass the guy
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this.
 
tehMoose said:
Obviously. He won 2x 10-8s and almost finished the current LW champ

But he's 35 years old and been in many wars in Bellator.
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I kept saying he's 35 .

29 year old Chandler, walls through that left hook and keeps pressuring. 35 year old Chandler with war and attrition couldn't. No knock on him, he looked good. He also gassed from grappling Oliveira. Against goiti he had a better gas tank but to be fair he had top control most of the time
 
Yeah I was impressed with how he got Oliveira off his back in that fight.

He was very close to winning that fight in the first round, Oliveira showed his heart and rose to the occasion in that second round.

It will be interesting to see how he does against guys like Gaethje and Poirier, I feel like he's at least 50-50 in both those fights.
 
I don't think so. Oliveira was kind of a good match up for him, but Poirier and Gaethje would stop him easier.
 
CPH said:
He might never get that belt but what a great champ he would be. I have been impressed with every one of his public speaking appearances and the post-fight presser in particular. Not just an elite LW, but also extremely likeable/sellable. Does any one of you filthy basement-dwellers not like this guy?
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Public speaking appearances - don’t care.
Post fight comments - don’t care.
Likeable/sellable - don’t care.
Basement dweller - maybe.

At 4:55 into the fight I was pretty confident he was going to run away with it. Turns out I was wrong. It was a pretty incredible turnaround by Oliveira.

See....THATS what I care about. The fighting. Not his like-ability. Does that make me a basement dweller? Why?

Becauae the flip side of that is NOT wanting Oliveira to win because, say, he doesn’t speak English. And I say that makes you unlikeable. No offense of course. Please don’t get lethal in the streets on me.
 
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As I said, he might or might not get the strap, but he is up there ability-wise and would be a great American champ because he is so well-spoken and likeable.

Smart fans know that being a champ rests largely on being offered the right opponents at the right time. There are champs who simply cannot be denied and are head and shoulders above everyone else. That doesn’t appear to be the case at LW right now. Even Conor can weasel his way in there.
 
He is a top guy and there are lots of good fights for him. Even if he were to lose them he has a chance to win against everyone. Got close already last night and dominated Hooker. Has wins over Alvarez and Bendo. "Bellator fighter" doesn't mean that much, that he's a lesser fighter than UFC's top guys. He is on their level.

And has a great attitude for just making weight and accepting all fights to show that he wants it.

But it's a question of how long. He is old for a LW at age 35. Ideally he would've signed with the UFC like 5 years ago. LW's at age 35 don't last that long.
 
I've been saying it for ages - Chandler is a Glass Cannon.

Mike is a good fighter and has a lot of good attributes and skills, but his striking defense isn't good and he's far too wild in the stand up realm.
 
I don't think that is too big a setback for Chandler, hurt Charles twice in the 1st and had another great fight, probably only going to take another good win or two for another title shot I'd imagine.

Most likely nobody builds the status Khabib had but LW generally does look like it could have a sucession of great title fights with Charles, Chandler, Dustin and Justin all in the picture.
 
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