Media Thoughts on Michael Chandler

His lifting form is all wrong. He really needs to take notes from Tony Ferguson.

Lifting from the back in a jerking and twisting motion is the proper way to do it.
Master Fabia could have hung him upside down, blindfolded him and beaten him in homo erotic fashion to help toughen that chin as well. No way Charlie Olives would have knocked him out if he had that conditioning worked in.
 
He should have been in the UFC years ago, wasted time if you ask me
He was the face of the #2 promotion in the world for a decade. He made really good money there too. It certainly wasn't a waste of time. He's past his prime now but still a threat to anyone in the top 10 on a good night.
 
Their social media is also a good gauge since they like to post their training highlights on there. You can usually tell who focuses more on muscles compared to everything else. Like Conor for example, very easy to see the shift in his training with his training footage he would show. Compare all his recent training footage vs his old footage, very different content and it explains his current fight style vs his old fighting style pretty easily.

For example look at Canelo's training footage on his social media and his coach's social media, you can see what Canelo focuses on in his training.
Social Media is the worst way to gauge what anyone's life is really like.
 
He's a kill or be killed fighter. Has great wrestling, good striking big power and a good submission game. He is 35 though and likely only has 1-3 years left as a top LW. Hope he can win the belt before he's done.
 
Chandlers a stud. I think anyone in the top 5 are pretty much 50/50 against each other. Expect Islam. He probably outgrapples all of them. But, who knows.
 
He has always been about athletic ability+++ hard wrok. I remember an interview a while ago he made the point that he is not really a fighter's fighter. Hadn't grown up scrapping etc. He made quite a point of it. I'm not saying it takes anything away from him as a fighter, I think it's just what he primarily builds off.

Always liked him. The stool incident tho. Poor dude
 
he's a veteran. i doubt he can improve skill-wise significantly at 35 and he probably knows it. focusing more on delaying his physical decline seems smart to me.
 
Social Media is the worst way to gauge what anyone's life is really like.
I'm not talking about their life, I'm talking about training. It is a good way to gauge what people are working on. No one is going to put out horrible training footage so they put up the footage they like and footage that highlights their skills and physical abilities. If you look at the footage as a whole you'll see trends of what is worked on the most. It may not be specifics but you'll see things they work on more than others. You can bring up any fighter and look up their training footage and you'll see it correlates with their fighting style.

I used Canelo for example, you see lots of pad work and aqua bag work. You see him working his uppercuts and body shots on the aqua bags and when he's hitting pads. You see him working his movement and head movement on bags. You see the same uppercuts and body punches in his fights. You see the same head movement in his fights. You see Floyd doing his pull counters on double end bag. You'll see the same pull counters in his fights. You see him working his philly shell doing pad work, you'll see him doing the same philly shell set ups in his fights. You see people hit combos on pads over and over again, you'll see them attempt that same combo in their fights.

Not hard to read from the people aware enough to pick up details that others will miss. Then add that in with their in fight footage and it's not hard to get an understanding of someone's overall fighting style and techniques/shot selections/patterns/timing/etc. Of course to others all that will just go over their head anyway so it won't matter anyways.
 
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Of course that element is going to be there but if you see a trend that will be what they tend to focus on. Of course there can be some misdirection but that usually when it's closer to an actual fight but just overall training they like to highlight what they work on. So you tend to see a trend in the type of training they do mostly. Like with Canelo and Floyd, you never really see them showing footage of them lifting weights, but you see a lot of pad work and bag work. Canelo with a lot of head movement work and power punching work. Floyd with the double-end bag, etc. Conor before was always doing more of that type of training and doing a lot of shadow boxing. Now all you see from him is lifting and him flexing his muscles on his social media. For me it's easy to see the shift in his training and how it affected his overall fighting style.
You can’t really compare everyone else to Floyd or Canello because both of them own the gyms they use so they can do whatever they want to. Floyd’s cardio workouts are legendary so he focuses on it for sure.

I also think boxers are basically a single skill combat sport so they are focused primarily on striking. If you ask a boxer to make a video they are going to show you things in regard to striking.

MMA guys have to be multifaceted so their training is more diverse. If you ask an MMA fighter to make a video they would probably say “of what”.

There’s a cool video of Chandler and Usman rolling and grappling together that is pretty cool.



It’s kind of frowned on to video though which is why when you see someone do a video they are almost always by themselves out of the gym.
 
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He should start chewing some gum also to help train that jaw, idk if it would help but fk it I would've done it.
 
I became a fan. I was a hater after his first fight with Patricky, he LNP basically the whole fight but Mike developed a great offensive game. Chandler doesn't have solid defensive fundamentals but he is damn fun to watch.
 
Its kind of funny how all these fighters get in their physical prime in their mid 30s compared to when they would have had much higher testosterone levels in their mid 20s. Lawler, Romero, Chandler,Woodley Eddie.... and so on and on and on. Its comical
 
Chandler is a perfect example of a fighter pushing the limits of how far athleticism will take you when you are outmatched in skill. I think there have been several cases in his career where the only thing that saves him is his freak physical ability. Shit this man's sub defense is just exploding out of positions half the time.

Not to say he is not skillful. He's a very good offensive wrestler. His striking is solid. He's not half bad with his tdd and ground defense. But what really carries him is that crazy power and athleticism
 
You can’t really compare everyone else to Floyd or Canello because both of them own the gyms they use so they can do whatever they want to. Floyd’s cardio workouts are legendary so he focuses on it for sure.

I also think boxers are basically a single skill combat sport so they are focused primarily on striking. If you ask a boxer to make a video they are going to show you things in regard to striking.

MMA guys have to be multifaceted so their training is more diverse. If you ask an MMA fighter to make a video they would probably say “of what”.

There’s a cool video of Chandler and Usman rolling and grappling together that is pretty cool.



It’s kind of frowned on to video though which is why when you see someone do a video they are almost always by themselves out of the gym.

I've seen that training and I understand what you are saying. To me by Chandler's training he focuses on being explosive and strength/athleticism. That's why his fighting style is the way it is. So for me his training videos does match his fighting style. Even the fighters that don't show much will still show something and mostly it will be something they train the most. Even Khabib barely post training stuff but you will always see wrestling/sambo and sometimes training his striking. Same take downs he's done in fights and same punch combinations in his fights. It's pretty much the same for every fighter. No one post anything they don't do, they post things they can do or post things they are trying to learn how to do.
 
My thoughts are that Dan Hooker was never a top 5 lightweight so eyeballs are optic and expectations become diluted.

Dana did what Dana does. They put the #5 next to Hookers name, built up the incoming Chandler and it couldnt of worked out better. Instant title shot ???? and Dana was all over it from jumpstreet ( post presser Chandler-Hooker).

Mike has been in some wars ... I dont see him beating the top half dozen lights so we'll see where he settles in.
 
Beat me to it.
Seent it happen in almost real time. Had dubs, kept jawing and POOF.

Michael Chandler the fighter? Like him, think his age and fight mileage might have caught up with him. If he gets hit and taken out again fairly easily I feel like that's confirmation he won't be UFC champion. Always been a fan tho. Not that I root for him over everyone but I'll probably always pick him on Tapology.
 
I hope the Gaethje fight happens. If not, I'd like to see Chandler fight Islam.
 
I think he is doing the right thing.
He has a low fight IQ. He needs to train explosivenes and speed. That's the only tool he has over most fighters.
He is never going to outbox Poirier or out grapple Charles.
He needs to suprise with explosivenes before fighters gets his timing.
He has no fight IQ.
He can win against anyone in the LW division with a surprise in the first round. But he will mostly lose to most fighters in the top.
Idk about NO iq but I agree for the most part. I can't see him decisioning guys like gaethje or even maybe shot Tony. But I can see him landing a bomb at any second
 
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