Former Bellator and Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez is confident he is Khabib Nurmagomeodv’s kryptonite, saying he has the tools to hand the current division king his first-ever loss.
Now, “The Underground King’s” former Bellator stablemate, Michael Chandler, is one-upping his former rival, saying that if he ever gets the chance to face “The Eagle” 10 times, he sweeps the series.
“That’s the thing: From the outside perspective, people always think, ‘Bellator, UFC, ONE FC, blah blah blah,’” Chandler said in an interview with MMA Junkie. “I don’t think about promotions, I think about the guys. How do I match up against Khabib? How do I take exactly what Al Iaquinta did, except with my wrestling, and my striking, and my wrestling offense and defense,” he said.
Known for his smothering tactics, aggression and world-class grappling, Khabib has made it a habit to simply punish and dominate all of his foes (like this). Though it’s something Chandler feels he can nullify by touching him up.
“How I would nullify his takedowns, how I would even take him down, how I would get in his face, and how he would finally have somebody put hands on him and hurt him like Michael Johnson did? I think that picture has been painted a couple of times, of how to beat Khabib. And I think I beat him 10 times out of 10.”
Still, Chandler says he has no intentions of leaving Bellator MMA anytime soon, but if he ever switched teams, it definitely would be UFC.
“I have no intentions of leaving Bellator,” added Chandler. “We’ll see what happens, but to me, I don’t think there would be any other interest for me to go anywhere else besides Bellator or the UFC,” Chandler said. “Obviously, I’m very happy with where I’m at right now. But there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t constantly think about this career that I have moving forward.”
Chandler is currently riding a two-fight win streak and was last seen submitting Brandon Girts in the first round at Bellator 197 earlier this month. While Chandler would make a very interesting addition to the UFC roster, seeing him fight inside the Octagon anytime soon is something that is unlikely to happen.
Still, that shouldn’t stop you from giving us your prediction as to how a fight between he and Khabib would go down in the comments section below.