News Chandler has "other plans"

[mkt]

I think he'd absolutely decimate RDA, but I understand why he doesn't wanna fight, it's on 6 days notice, and RDA isn't ranked at LW

Only if RDA has a terrible weight cut (like he did vs. Eddie Alvarez). He looked pretty bad in his last few LW outings so it's hard to say. But Chandler was KO'd by a FW and didn't look at all like a world beater in his first fight with Bendo (who hasn't looked good since 2013) or Primus (a guy with only 8 MMA fights at the time). RDA with a good weight cut doesn't sound like a walk in the park for him...especially given how weak most of Chandler's opposition has been in recent years.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

So this is Chandler's fault now? AGAIN? lol. RDA pulls out of the first fight "WHERE'S CHANDLER"

Islam pulls out this time and people STILL talk "WHERE'S CHANDLER"



The dude can't win no matter what he does.

Right. All with zero idea whether the company even wanted him to step in or whether they “have other plans” for him.

It’s amazing how little information a person feels the need to have before expressing a hot take in the year 2020.

For all these guys know Chandler could have been laying on a beach weighing 188 pounds, on the phone with Sean Shelby firming up a fight in January against Tony Ferguson, and they wanted him to say, “Sean I gotta go, I need to sign into Twitter and demand a short notice fight RDA on the shittiest card of the year. Because that’s what I meant when I said I was ready for anybody, I meant that if anyone on the roster from John Dodson to Francis Ngannou ever needs a fight at any time whatsoever I would call them out on Twitter within 5 minutes, and I don’t want to be hypocrite.”

 

[Arkham's Notorious Geyser]

Right. All with zero idea whether the company even wanted him to step in or whether they “have other plans” for him.

It’s amazing how little information a person feels the need to have before expressing a hot take in the year 2020.

For all these guys know Chandler could have been laying on a beach weighing 188 pounds, on the phone with Sean Shelby firming up a fight in January against Tony Ferguson, and they wanted him to say, “Sean I gotta go, I need to sign into Twitter and demand a short notice fight RDA on the shittiest card of the year. Because that’s what I meant when I said I was ready for anybody, I meant that if anyone on the roster from John Dodson to Francis Ngannou ever needs a fight at any time whatsoever I would call them out on Twitter within 5 minutes, and I don’t want to be hypocrite.”

Thank you lol, everyone getting mad at him for making the Smarter business decision especially when he has Dana and the UFC on his side. This is like Adesanya going "Yeah I had this plan to Fight Jan than Jon and cement my Legacy but some people on Twitter said I should fight the winner of Holland/Hermansson so let me just derail my plans to make them happy because you know...that's what pays the bills"

 

[empsim]

He's only fighting Khabib, Conor, or for the vacant belt.

Send him back to Bellator.

 

[The_Renaissance]

Chandler needs to earn his way into contention, bigtime. Give him Do Bronx first, if he wins, he can have a #1 contender fight against someone like Ferguson.

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Only if RDA has a terrible weight cut (like he did vs. Eddie Alvarez). He looked pretty bad in his last few LW outings so it's hard to say. But Chandler was KO'd by a FW and didn't look at all like a world beater in his first fight with Bendo (who hasn't looked good since 2013) or Primus (a guy with only 8 MMA fights at the time). RDA with a good weight cut doesn't sound like a walk in the park for him...especially given how weak most of Chandler's opposition has been in recent years.

Even though I think the criticisms of Chandler ITT are ridiculous, I actually agree with this.

RDA is good everywhere.

He had a grappling-heavy diet of opponents at 170 and held up surprisingly well IMO (especially against Colby and Fighter Kevin). He might not be as physically strong at 155, but unless Chandler is a very good wrestler I do not think he’d be able to take and keep RDA down, or do any damage, and to the extent that he did he would likely become exhausted. Not only is he a threat to get back up, but he can absolutely sweep Chandler and work GNP or a sub of his own (like he did to FKL).

Standing he isn’t a huge knockout threat but he can definitely fight in a phone booth if that’s what you want.

The bottom line is that while we don’t know exactly how RDA will look back at 155, he’s not a guy that you beat, let alone look great against, unless you’re really good. Chandler’s best shot to look great is probably the Eddie blueprint (aka his own blueprint against Bendo recently). If he does that, Rogan can gush about what a test this was against a former champ and how Chandler just did what nobody has been able to do since Alvarez. Absent that big KO it would probably be a great test of all of Chandler’s skills. If he passes the test and looks good doing it, no reason at all that he can’t go right into a huge fight next.

So I don’t disagree with those of you who like the matchup. It would not have shocked me if they’d done something like this.

However, I do think that there’s one variable that might be being overlooked (on the UFC side that is). A lot of you are focused on “making him earn it,” which is understandable, but that’s a very Chandler-centric point of view. To you, the UFC is giving Chandler something unfairly. But by hyping Chandler, among other things, the UFC is ensuring that he’ll be a big scalp for whoever beats him. Will Brooks was mentioned earlier, and I think the company made a big mistake with him. Does anyone even remember the guys who beat him? Whether you do or you don’t, they certainly didn’t get any sort of career jolt from it. They’ve handled Chandler much differently, and as a result whoever beats him is going to feel like a major contender. Does RDA fit the bill? Not really IMO. The smart thing would be, IMO, for the company to put itself into a win-win scenario. If Chandler beats someone like Ferguson, Poirier, McGregor, etc., he’s a big star. If they beat him, they’re right back on track as championship material (in a way that Poirier was not by beating Dan Hooker).

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Chandler needs to earn his way into contention, bigtime. Give him Do Bronx first, if he wins, he can have a #1 contender fight against someone like Ferguson.

Oliveira would be fine with me, because that would be the big name win that CO needs to feel like a genuine contender (I think we are all going to remember him tapping to strikes against Felder, among other sad endings, until he washes it away with a big scalp).

I wouldn’t go any lower than that though. You want to make sure that someone comes out of the Chandler debut looking like a star.

 

[K-Town Punk]

The guy's trying to get a top 5 opponent and doesn't want to risk it by fighting a good opponent further down the ranks. A loss against RDA would be a huge blow to his standing whereas a loss against a top 5 guy at lightweight wouldn't throw him back too much, he'd still get the chance to compete against someone around the ranks of RDA and Makhachev in that case.

Unfortunately Dana gave him the wrong signal when he made him the official replacement guy for Khabib vs Gaethje recently. I say don't give the guy a top 5 opponent, he hasn't earned it in the UFC. Make him fight other guys who want to break (back) into those ranks. RDA would be a good choice.

 

[mkt]

Even though I think the criticisms of Chandler ITT are ridiculous, I actually agree with this.

RDA is good everywhere.

He had a grappling-heavy diet of opponents at 170 and held up surprisingly well IMO (especially against Colby and Fighter Kevin). He might not be as physically strong at 155, but unless Chandler is a very good wrestler I do not think he’d be able to take and keep RDA down, or do any damage, and to the extent that he did he would likely become exhausted. Not only is he a threat to get back up, but he can absolutely sweep Chandler and work GNP or a sub of his own (like he did to FKL).

Standing he isn’t a huge knockout threat but he can definitely fight in a phone booth if that’s what you want.

The bottom line is that while we don’t know exactly how RDA will look back at 155, he’s not a guy that you beat, let alone look great against, unless you’re really good. Chandler’s best shot to look great is probably the Eddie blueprint (aka his own blueprint against Bendo recently). If he does that, Rogan can gush about what a test this was against a former champ and how Chandler just did what nobody has been able to do since Alvarez. Absent that big KO it would probably be a great test of all of Chandler’s skills. If he passes the test and looks good doing it, no reason at all that he can’t go right into a huge fight next.

So I don’t disagree with those of you who like the matchup. It would not have shocked me if they’d done something like this.

However, I do think that there’s one variable that might be being overlooked (on the UFC side that is). A lot of you are focused on “making him earn it,” which is understandable, but that’s a very Chandler-centric point of view. To you, the UFC is giving Chandler something unfairly. But by hyping Chandler, among other things, the UFC is ensuring that he’ll be a big scalp for whoever beats him. Will Brooks was mentioned earlier, and I think the company made a big mistake with him. Does anyone even remember the guys who beat him? Whether you do or you don’t, they certainly didn’t get any sort of career jolt from it. They’ve handled Chandler much differently, and as a result whoever beats him is going to feel like a major contender. Does RDA fit the bill? Not really IMO. The smart thing would be, IMO, for the company to put itself into a win-win scenario. If Chandler beats someone like Ferguson, Poirier, McGregor, etc., he’s a big star. If they beat him, they’re right back on track as championship material (in a way that Poirier was not by beating Dan Hooker).

Good points. I just really don't know where Chandler is right now. He was definitely good back in 2011 when he beat Eddie Alvarez. But he's mostly been fed a diet of Yamaguichi, Girtz, Primus, Outlaw, old Bendo, etc. lately. If people don't recognize those name (other than Bendo), it's because they're not well known or particularly good LWs. I mean Primus looks somewhere between decent and good, but he's like 36 with 10 professional fights....he just hasn't fought enough to evaluate him.