It’s finally happening. After a decade as the kingpin of Bellator’s lightweight division – and several months of speculation about his next stop – Michael Chandler, Mr. Bellator, is heading to the UFC.
It’s exciting news, and it had to happen now. Chandler is 34 years old and had exhausted pretty much every interesting matchup he could have had in Bellator. And his terrific natural athleticism, one of the things that has separated him over the years, isn’t going to stick around forever.
Even so, it feels crazy that it’s actually happening. People had been fantasy booking Chandler in the UFC for years, but he stuck around Bellator so long that it seemed like he’d be a lifer – he was afraid of the competition in the UFC, people would say, or that he knew he’d get popped by USADA the second he signed a UFC fight.
But after the years of will he or won’t he, we’ll finally see Michael Chandler in the Octagon. While I’m not certain Chandler is a top-tier contender in the UFC at this point, I think he still comfortably slides in at the bottom half of the top 10 – Dana White certainly is going to put him in a prime spot, as he will reportedly serve as backup for the Khabib Nurmagomedov–Justin Gaethje lightweight title fight on Fight Island next month.
Even if Chandler isn’t a championship-caliber fighter in the UFC, White is getting a terrific athlete and a terrific talent. Chandler emerged seemingly fully-formed as a killer upon arriving in Bellator in 2010, a two-time Division I All-American with explosive and powerful hands.
Within a year, he was choking out one of the world’s top lightweights – future UFC champ Eddie Alvarez – in an all-time classic fight to win the Bellator title.
Since then, he’s fought and beaten most of Bellator’s best. He holds two wins over former UFC 155-pound kingpin Benson Henderson, most recently putting the uber-tough veteran’s lights out in just over two minutes last month.
Chandler has always had trouble with fighters who were more athletic and explosive than him – he was completely unable to figure out Will Brooks in a pair of 2014 fights, before Brooks went on to an unimpressive UFC run. I don’t think that he’s beating a Khabib or a Gaethje. But there are all kinds of interesting matchups to be made: how about Chandler with Tony Ferguson, or Dustin Poirier, or Dan Hooker?
You’re talking about guaranteed action. Chandler has always had a very aggressive mindset, coming in fast and throwing leather, and that’s never changed over a decade-plus of pro fighting. Plus, he has a lot to prove – he’s listened to a lot of speculation over the years about how he’d do in the UFC.
He’s also making a jump few have made, going from top star in Bellator over to the UFC. Plenty of former UFC stars have gone to Bellator when their time at the top has ended or their relationships with Dana White have soured – it’s kind of the thing to do. It hasn’t happened often the other way around all that often, as Bellator has managed to keep hold of many excellent home-grown stars like Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Douglas Lima.
It has happened a few times, however. Alvarez blazed that trail after losing a rematch to Chandler in 2013, winning the UFC title three years later – he’s still the only male fighter ever to hold titles in both organizations. The rest of the group is a decidedly mixed bag. Former Bellator heavyweight champ Alexander Volkov has done quite well for himself in the UFC, although he’s clearly a level below the very best. Brooks, Joe Soto and Zach Makovsky all notably struggled. Then you have Ben Askren, who went undefeated in Bellator and ONE before signing with the UFC in 2019, and is now best remembered for eating the legendary five-second flying knee knockout from Jorge Masvidal in his second Octagon fight.
I think Chandler has enough juice to do better than most. And after all these years, I can’t wait to see his next journey start.
The Big Fight 