Let them bang, bro.
UFC President Dana White recently told the combat sports media that “a lot of sh*t went down” during filming of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 31, leading to a physical confrontation between head coaches (and lightweight rivals) Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler.
Turns out White and Co. had themselves a bench-clearing brawl.
“Here’s what I learned about the McGregor-Chandler ‘incident’ that Dana was alluding to on Saturday,” Sports Illustrated reporter Amy Kaplan wrote on Twitter. “Apparently, someone was KO’d and McGregor jumped in the cage, shoved Chandler, someone got slapped and the teams rushed the cage. NSAC broke it up.”
TUF bylaws state very clearly: I can’t let you get close!
McGregor and Chandler are charged with leading a squad of lightweight and bantamweight fighters in pursuit of a six-figure contract. Later this year, “Notorious” and “Iron” will collide atop a yet-to-be named UFC pay-per-view (PPV) event to settle their score.
“I’m just trying to be authentically myself and let the chips fall where they may because you never know,” Chandler said backstage at UFC 285 (via MMA Junkie). “You never quite know what’s going to happen. And also with me and my team and his, you can’t make a plan, because your plan’s going to get spoiled on this show, because there’s all kinds of crazy stuff getting pulled out of the hat at all different times. But Conor’s been both sides of the coin, to say the least.”
TUF 31 premieres May 30 on ESPN.