Michael Chandler claims he was 'too young' when he first fought Charles Oliveira at UFC 262… 'I've turned into a completely different man'
11/12/2024 06:27 AM
This coming Saturday at UFC 309, Michael Chandler will step into the Octagon for the first time in two years when he rematches Charles Oliveira in a huge lightweight fight.
After waiting for several years for a fight against Conor McGregor and realising it wasn’t going to come to fruition, Michael Chandler demanded a different fight and was matched up with former champion, Charles Oliveira.
Despite the fact that ‘Do Bronx’ is coming off a loss, it is a huge fight for ‘Iron’ Mike as he has already suffered a loss to the Brazilian back at UFC 262, when he fought him for the vacant title.
Michael Chandler claims he was ‘too young’ when he first fought Oliveira
Although Chandler is 1-3 in his last four fights, the 38-year-old is adamant that the promotion have told him, if he beats Oliveira at UFC 309, his next fight will be for the undisputed lightweight title.
Reflecting on his first performance against the Brazilian fan favorite, Chandler has claimed that he was ‘too young’ despite having fought him when he was 35 years old, 27 fights into his professional career.
“I watched the first round about a week ago, I didn’t watch the second round. The second round was me making a really silly mistake that I have since cleaned up,” Chandler began to explain on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“I was too young, man. Even though I was old, I was too young, I was too new in the sport, I had two and a half minutes of Octagon experience, two and a half minutes of UFC cage time.
“Not only have I grown as a fighter, but obviously these last two years that I’ve been out of the Octagon, out of competition, so many things I’ve changed and so many things I’ve worked on and so many things, I’ve turned into a completely different man,” Chandler continued.
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Michael Chandler breaks down in tears as he reveals his father will corner him at UFC 309
The 38-year-old is a fighter who candidly wears his heart on his sleeve, and this past Monday, he made his fight against Oliveira a little more important when he revealed his father will be part of his corner team as he broke down in tears.
Chandler’s father has been part of his corner team only once before since the exciting fan favorite joined the UFC back in 2021, and it was during his first fight against Oliveira, setting the narrative.
“I respect my dad so much, he worked so hard, he’s going to be in my corner, one of the greatest things is my dad’s gonna be in my corner. I sent him a message the other day and I just told him about his hands, my dad has these big ass meat cleaver hands and they’re big and cracked.
“They’re dirty but they’re his hands and I always admired his hands because his hands told a story. Right now I’ve got a couple of cuts on my hands, like God just put them on my hands this camp to say, look what you have created, look what you have done with your hands,” Chandler continued.
