According to one up-and-comer, Michael Chandler has no business having a number next to his name in the UFC lightweight division.
Chandler has had an up and down run since joining the UFC from Bellator, where he was a former three-time champion. He’s been unable to win gold on MMA’s biggest stage and has accumulated a negative record.
While “Iron” has scored memorable knockouts of Dan Hooker and Tony Ferguson, he’s tasted defeat twice as much as he has victory in the UFC, falling to Charles Oliveira twice in addition to Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje.
Despite the state of his Octagon record, however, Chandler remains highly ranked at #7. During a recent interview with Inside Fighting, the unranked Grant Dawson gave his assessment of that, calling for the veteran to be booted from the top 15.
“There are people who do not belong in the top 15 let alone the top 10,” Dawson said. “If you like at somebody like Michael Chandler, he’s 2-4 in the UFC. You put his record up against my record, 11-1 in the UFC, assuming I beat Diego (Ferreira). 11-1 in the UFC compared to 2-4 in the UFC, and you say, ‘Yeah, the 11-1 guy (is) not ranked. The 2-4 guy ranked in the top 10, top seven.’ It doesn’t make any sense.
“You’ve got these guys, they’re not looking to fight the up-and-comers,” Dawson continued. “They need to take Michael Chandler out of there.”
After going unbeaten across his first nine UFC fights and defeating the highly regarded Damir Ismagulov, Dawson broke through into the lightweight rankings. But a shock 33-second knockout loss to King Green quickly changed that.
The American Top Team standout has since been looking to work his way back up the ladder. Thus far, that’s seen him outpoint Joe Solecki and stop Rafa Garcia via TKO in back-to-back contests.
He’ll next look to make it three wins on the bounce when he collides with lightweight vet Diego Ferreira at UFC 311 in Los Angeles on Jan. 18.