Michael Chandler
Bellator lightweight champ Michael Chandler (10-0) has a long way to go before he will be considered the World’s No. 1 ranked 155-lbs fighter, but the undefeated champ feels that it’s the reason “God put me in this sport”.
Chandler recently broke the top ten rankings of several mma websites, coming in at No. 9, after his recent victory over
Japanese veteran Akihiro Gono, who held over six times the number of pro-matches as Chandler possessed.
Speaking to MMAFighting.com, the Bellator champ talked about his quick win versus Gono and it’s meaning to him in his quest to be Number one. Chandler also attended this past weekends MTV Movie Awards, sitting in the fourth row with Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal and Pat Curran, but you’ll have to hit the link to read those comments.
“For me, that’s awesome. Being considered top 10 in the world is an amazing thing. My goal is to be No. 1. God put me in this sport for a reason. But I’m trying not to focus on the rankings too much, just beat the next tournament winner and next tournament winner and next tournament winner after that.”
Since defeating Alvarez, Chandler went on to defeat veteran Akihiro Gono via first-round knockout in less than a minute on May 4. The veteran Gono announced his retirement immediately after the bout, but Chandler still views the win as an important learning experience.
“The thing about Gono, he was a little bit older and toward the end of his career, but he’s still dangerous,” Chandler said. “The fact that I was fighting a guy who went to a draw with Chael Sonnen, beat Hector Lombard, fought Dan Henderson, Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua, those guys, you know he’s dangerous. You know he’s got 40-something fights on me, I’ve only get 10 fights, he’s got 50-something. The fact we were able to go out and get a dominant win shows that I’m working hard and shows my explosiveness in the cage and how serious I’m taking this.”
Chandler captured the Bellator title last November by submitting former champ Eddie Alvarez in one of the most memorable fights of 2011. Chandler will face Rick Hawn next at an undetermined date.