On paper, Chandler is Conor’s best matchup in the entire top 5. A short stocky wrestler who frequently wings his punches and is often open to being countered, as demonstrated in the Poirier, Pitbull and Oliveira fights. With a guy as precise and on point as Mcgregor was in his prime, you could legit see as Chandler tried to bullrush him, Mac sliding out of the way and landing a series of left and rights on his chin with pinpoint accuracy. The left stabbing front kick of mcgregor is also perfect to use against Chandler, given that Chandler has a relatively square stance, so Conor could use it to gas Chandler out ala mendes. Prime Conor also had wicked TD defense, such that a 2 year layoff version of himself, did pretty well all things considered against the GOAT grappler in Mma.
the only weapon that Chandler could utilize effectively against prime mcgregor would be his leg kicks (which are very underrated). Even Alvarez caused mcgregor issues in the first 30 seconds with his kicks and chandlers kicks are way better imo. All in all, I genuinely believe that Prime Mcgregor would stop a prime Chandler in 2 RDS (something which both mcgregor and Chandlers mutual opponents in. Alvarez and Poirier agree with).
However, notice how I kept referring to Prime McGregor. The reality is this isn’t Prime Mcgregor. His footwork, speed, reactions all looked severely depleted in the last 2 Poirier fights and the reality is that with him piling on more muscle since then (+ the leg break), he’ll be even slower and less snappy in this fight either. His TD defense also looks kinda shot, with him diving on a guillotine as soon as Poirier had him up against the fence. The truth is that chandlers only asset which may have diminished is his chin (which imo can hold up well enough against a slower sloppier mcgregor) where’s all of mcgregors attributes have become 10 fold worse.
Also need i mention commitment and mindgames. One guy is constantly spouting generic inspirational shot and training like his life depend on it, while the other is sniffing the good stuff on his lambo yaught and getting black out drunk. As for the mind games, watch the clip where mcgregor pushes Chandler on TUF. Chandler is seen laughing in his face seconds after. Mcgregors strength when he was young was psychological warfare, and factually, it looks like Chandler is in his head more than he’s in Chandlers.
I know it’s a long one but in summary, prime Mac smokes prime Chandler, but ahead of their December fight, I predict Chandler TKOS Mcgregor or subs him in 1 Rd.
what do you think Sherbros? Who have you got?