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Michael Chandler thinks Dustin Poirier should prioritize a fourth Conor McGregor fight over UFC champ Charles Oliveira.

Michael Chandler would recommend Dustin Poirier hold out for a fourth fight against Conor McGregor, instead of challenging Charles Oliveira for the UFC Lightweight championship.

Chandler (No. 4) is coming off a competitive UFC Lightweight title loss to Oliveira (watch highlights) at UFC 262 on May 15. Poirier likely punched his way to a title fight with a first-round technical knockout (TKO) via ankle injury (watch here) against McGregor at UFC 264 on July 10. “Iron” Mike predicts that Poirier’s competitive drive will route him to Oliveira; however, he says the smart money is a third consecutive McGregor fight.

“If I’m Dustin Poirier, I’m just waiting for Conor 4,” Chandler told Helen Yee during UFC 265 fight week (h/t MMA News). “If Poirier goes and wins the title, can Conor come right back and fight Poirier if he has the title? Crazier things have happened. So if I’m Poirier, I’m just waiting out and waiting for Conor 4, especially after he said numerous things about my wife and my kids and killing me, all that kind of stuff. But I also know… and this is a testament to Poirier as a competitor, he wants to win the ultimate prize in mixed martial arts. He’s been an interim champion, but he hasn’t [been a] full-fledged 100% undisputed champion. So I think the competitor in him will go fight Charles Oliveira.”

Chandler is siding with Poirier as his official pick in a potential Oliveira vs. Poirier clash.

“I think they’re both well-rounded. I think Poirier’s got a little bit more of kind of that dog in him when the fight gets in the thick of it,” Chandler suggested. “Charles Oliveira beat me in the second round, very soon into the second round, so we didn’t really see a lot of longevity in a fight like that. We saw him go through rounds with Tony Ferguson, but that was muchly a one-sided affair. I think a fight with Dustin Poirier, he puts hands on him pretty solidly those first couple rounds and kinda starts to put it on Charles. I think Poirier wins that fight by third, fourth-round finish. If they do go all five, Poirier wins the decision.”

Chandler (22-6) is expected to fight fellow all-action athlete Justin Gaethje (22-3) at UFC 268, taking place on Nov. 6 via ESPN+ pay-per-view (PPV).

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If the UFC is unwilling to put together the obvious bout between Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou, maybe Jones could fight a recently deposed former champ? Or no. We could also not do that.

The UFC’s heavyweight title picture is a mess. What had seemed to be an obvious series of next steps for the promotion has devolved into a morass of holdouts, interim belts, bickering, and strongarm tactics—as Francis Ngannou and Jon Jones try to negotiate their way toward a ‘superfight’ and the UFC tries to wash their hands of the whole idea.

Which may have left some fans and pundits with the idea that, if the UFC is dead set on getting their way, there might still be a heavyweight fight or two out there for Jon Jones to take—if only to make sure that he kept his name active in the conversation around the title picture at 265 lbs. The most promising of those potential bouts would be one between Jon Jones and the recently deposed Stipe Miocic.

Miocic carved out a solid legacy by grabbing the record for most title defenses in UFC heavyweight history and still has some shine to his name, despite losing to Ngannou in the rematch of their 2018 bout. A fight between Jones and Miocic would still feel like a big, important fight. And whoever walked away with the victory would be a surefire contender for the man that holds the belt after Ngannou and Gane meet in the coming months.

If all that sounds like an acceptable (if not preffered) idea, however, it doesn’t seem like something we’re likely to see. At least not after hearing from Jones’ coach, Mike Winklejohn, who spoke about the idea of Jones vs. Miocic on a recent episode of Submission Radio.

“It doesn’t really excite me,” Winklejohn said of the potential matchup. “I would assume – It has nothing to do with what excites me or not, I would think the same thing, from the outside looking in, I would think that wouldn’t excite Jon. I think Jon wants the big one, he wants to get the big one, he wants the big challenge. And right now Stipe is not there. Stipe is awesome, don’t get me wrong, but Jon wants the biggest challenge out there. That’s how Jon Jones thinks.”

“That’s just me talking. For me, that doesn’t seem that exciting for Jon. It doesn’t make sense. Makes sense to go after the title, cause honestly, Jon is the best pound-for-pound of all time, so why would he have just a normal fight? Unless we felt we needed that to get used to our new body. I don’t think we’re gonna need that. I think Jon is already getting used to his new size. So, there’s not a necessity to take a step-up fight. Jon’s ready to go, he wants the challenge.”

Winklejohn added that he does think Jones will still return to the UFC at some point, even if the former light heavyweight king had to take “three or four years off.”

“Heavyweights are fighting until they’re older,” Winklejohn explained, “so I don’t know. I time’s actually on Jon’s side.”

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Holly Holm is trying to work her way back to a 135-pound title shot against reigning division titleholder Amanda Nunes, but it seems as though none of the top-ranked contenders are willing to serve as as a stepping stone for “The Preacher’s Daughter.”

That includes former opponents Germaine de Randamie and Miesha Tate.

“Honestly, nobody wants to fight Holly,” coach Mike Winkeljohn told Submission Radio. “We have to go up to 145 for this fight with (Norma) Dumont because nobody wants to fight Holly. I can go through the list. De Randamie’s ranked number one, she said absolutely, no way, I’m not gonna fight Holly Holm. So, she said no. We’ve already beat Raquel a bunch of times. We beat up Aldana. Aldana just beat up Yana. So, none of those are gonna make sense. Miesha Tate said nope, not right now. So, everybody talks the talk, but honestly, behind the scenes, nobody wants to fight Holly.”

After getting stopped by Nunes at UFC 239 back in summer 2019, Holm (14-5) racked up back-to-back wins over Raquel Pennington and Irene Aldana. Perhaps the skills on display against both of those contenders is what has the rest of the division shook.

“Holly just wants the title shot,” Winkeljohn continued. “That’s all she wants. She’s never turned down a fight before in her life, and she wants a title fight. I thought Holly looked so impressive when she fought Irene Aldana, that people gotta know where she’s at. And that’s the problem, people are like, uh oh, she can now wrestle people now? As well as striking? It’s getting scary, and I think people see that.”

Holm, 39, returns to featherweight against Norma Dumont on Oct. 16 in Las Vegas.

TJ Dillashaw, Brian Ortega, Josh Thomson, and Brendan Schaub got to discussing some of the UFC’s more generous locker room bonuses and whether or not it’d be worth losing a fight to get one.

Former and current UFC fighters gathered together last Saturday to watch the UFC’s latest PPV offering. Brendan Schaub brought Josh Thomson, TJ Dillashaw, and Brian Ortega on for his Fight Companion podcast to watch UFC 265, where Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane faced off for a piece of the UFC heavyweight championship.

While watching along as their fellow athletes competed inside the Octagon, the discussion turned to UFC locker room bonuses. TJ Dillashaw talked about how the UFC promised to “take care of” him for taking his bout with Joe Soto on 24 hours notice—for which Dillashaw says he got “zero dollars” bonus. And how the UFC made and failed to deliver on similar promises to Chris Weidman for his short notice fight with Demian Maia. When talk turned to a reported million dollar payout to Daniel Cormier for one of his losses to Jon Jones, however, the discussion got a little more interesting.

“If that’s the case, I f-ckin’ might lose for a million dollars,” upcoming UFC title challenger Brian Ortega joked in reaction to the Cormier story.

“You wouldn’t though,” Dillashaw chided. “You say that now, but you wouldn’t though.”

“Bro, I’d get my ass beat for a million dollars,” Ortega stated.

“You wouldn’t though, you wouldn’t.” Dillashaw continued, adding that Ortega is “too prideful” to take a dive. “You say that now, ‘Oh, a million dollars!’ But, the fight is worth more than a million dollars. If they’re willing to pay you a million dollars to lose, then if you win it’s worth more than a million dollars.”

“No, not my next one. I mean, like, a fight, ever,” Ortega conceded.

“That’s any fight, ever. Ever,” Dillashaw said, adamantly. “If they’re willing to pay you a million dollars to lose, it’s worth five times that to win.”

“I dunno dude, I’ve been fighting for a while and I have yet to get a million dollar paycheck,” Ortega mused.

“No, no, but I’m just saying,” Ortega added, when Schaub tried to argue that he’ll likely get a million dollars if he beats Volkanovski. “Of course I won’t lose the next one. I’m not saying [makes dive motion].

“But, if they were, like, ‘Hey bro, [makes dive motion again].’ For a million? And then I can still keep staying at the top?” Ortega responded as Dillashaw dismissed the idea with a “F-ck that.”

“I’ll just go practice my acting, you know?” Ortega concluded. “‘Yeah you gotta go get your ass kicked in a movie.’ Alright, lemme do it for real. There’s a real method actor.”

Whatever his feelings on taking a potential dive, it doesn’t sound like fans need to worry about anything untoward in Ortega’s upcoming title fight against the featherweight champ. But it’s fascinating to hear a fighter talk about the kind of circumstances that might make him consider abandoning his pride in the ring.

UFC 266: Volkanovski vs. Ortega is set to take place on September 25th in Las Vegas, NV. Alongside the featherweight main event, the card is expected to feature a women’s flyweight title fight between Valentina Shevchenko and Lauren Murphy. The long awaited welterweight rematch between Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawer is also set for the PPV portion of the card.