Author: Dan Hiergesell

Michael Chandler came up short in his lightweight title fight against Charles Oliveira at UFC 262 earlier this month, but the former Bellator MMA champion is handling the defeat like a true professional.

Having only competed inside the Octagon once before his clash with Oliveira for the vacant lightweight strap Chandler was the betting underdog at UFC 262. He had the punching power and elite athleticism to pull out the win, but many believed the fight would favor “Do Bronx” if it lasted long or went to the ground.

Chandler surprised many in the early going when he clobbered Oliveira with a right hand and put the Brazilian in serious trouble. More punches followed and Chandler nearly found the finish to capture his first UFC title. Unfortunately for him, Oliveira was able to recover and avoid the first-round stoppage.

Chandler recently sat down to break down the entire UFC 262 main event and discussed his early success in detail.

“This right here, is probably the hardest part of this entire fight to watch,” said Chandler about hurting Oliveira (shown above). “Charles Oliveira is essentially almost out here.

“It’s one of those deals if maybe I stopped punching, he is out, and I think I woke him back up by punching him again. But we threw the hook, chased him down. Right hand to the temple, he drops. Bang, bang, just landing shots.

“Right there he almost looks like he’s out, (but then) goes back to pulling guard. Here’s where the age old question of ‘Should you let him up? Should you just let him back to the feet?’ (Do) I think the right decision here could’ve been to let him up? Or the right decision here is to be in his guard and finish him with strikes like I have numerous people in the past? There’s a lot of times that people wilt under my pressure.”

Oliveira was able to regroup on the stool in between rounds and come out in the second with a point to prove. He cracked Chandler with a massive left hook that knocked the former Bellator MMA champion down. Chandler tried to defend and give himself enough time to recover but Oliveira was relentless and eventually found the finish.

“Here is the agony of defeat, where it starts to settle in,” said Chandler when describing the final moments of the fight. “You look around and you see the facial expressions of people.

“Man, that’s my fault,” he said. “I should’ve came up with the jab as a defense, instead of just throwing the right hand by itself.”

Luckily, Chandler is still one of the top names in the division and he’ll be given another chance to prove himself inside of the Octagon. It may take a few more wins to lock down another lightweight title shot, but Chandler has to be happy with his first-round performance against Oliveira. He looked incredible until it all came crashing down.

Michael Chandler believes he’s still in the thick of things atop the UFC’s lightweight division and he may be right.

Chandler, who is 1-1 inside of the Octagon thus far, is coming off a second-round TKO loss to Charles Oliveira in a lightweight title fight at UFC 262 earlier this month. It was a tough loss to swallow considering Chandler had “Do Bronx” badly hurt in the first round and nearly finished the fight. Oliveira eventually came back and quickly stopped Chandler moments into the second.

Despite the loss, Chandler believes he showed enough in his fight with Oliveira to stay afloat atop the 155-pound division. The former Bellator MMA lightweight champion still holds a knockout win over Dan Hooker so he shouldn’t pay too dearly for his recent defeat to “Do Bronx.” After all, Oliveira was on an eight-fight win streak heading into his clash with Chandler.

While Chandler remains a consummate professional who always takes a loss like a champion he believes he did enough against Oliveira to warrant an immediate rematch.

“There’s a case to be out there, and I’ve seen a lot of people say maybe an immediate rematch,” Chandler told MMA Junkie. “There’s a case to be made that I have one fight and beat any other guys in the top five, and I’m right there. I do believe I’m a big player at this point. I do believe I’m world-class. I do believe I’m just as good as any of these guys. I do believe that Charles Oliveira beats anybody else in the top five. You look at him against (Dustin) Poirier, you look at him against Conor (McGregor), you look at him against (Justin) Gaethje. I mean that’s a tough test for anybody, so losing to Charles Oliveira doesn’t make a me a guy that shouldn’t be fighting for a world title anytime soon.

“At this point, I don’t put any limits on what could happen. Immediate rematch could be a possibility, who knows? One fight could be a possibility, and then I’m fighting for the world title again by first quarter of next year. I’m not putting limits on anything. Obviously I have a limited time period. I’m not going to be here for a ton longer, so I want to get that title shot again before the end of next year. Either way, I’m willing to cut my teeth. I’m willing to re-build.”

Chandler, 35, remains one of the best lightweights in the world. He’s one of the most accomplished fighters in Bellator history and clearly has the chops to compete alongside the top 5 lightweights on the UFC roster. In fact, the promotion contacted Chandler after his loss to Oliveira to ensure him he’s still a major player at 155 pounds.

“On Monday, I heard from the UFC,” Chandler said. “They called me and said, ‘Keep your head up. You’re right there in the mix. Phenomenal fight. You almost beat the eventual world champion. You’re right there in the mix, and we’re going to get you another top five guy.’

“I got a lot of fun fights ahead of me, but I want to take a little bit of time off. I’ve been doing nothing but working since September when I signed with the UFC, and I think a couple months (away) from MMA training will be good. I’m going to keep my cardio high, my strength and conditioning going and keep taking care of my body.”

While Chandler continues to say he doesn’t have a lot of time left to become a UFC world champion he’s only one win away from putting himself back in contention. The downfall of perennial contender Tony Ferguson could certainly help Chandler’s chances moving forward, but other guys like Beneil Dariush, Islam Makhachev, and Gregor Gillespie are on the rise. Chandler won’t have any room for another mistake down the line.

What say you, Maniacs? Will Chandler one day fight for the UFC lightweight title again? If so, how long before that happens?

Let us know in the comments below!

It’s rare that a referee has to choke a fighter to stop a fight, but that’s exactly what happened earlier this week at WEF Selection 35.

The incident occurred at an event for Kyrgyzstan-based MMA promotion World Ertaymash Federation (WEF). In the main event, Doolotbek Narmatov and Saidburkhon Saidakbarova collided for the featherweight championship.

Narmatov, who was 2-0 coming into the main event fight, made quick work of Saidakbarova in the first round and locked in a tight guillotine choke. Narmatov dropped to the ground and cranked until Saidakbarova squirmed and eventually tapped.

That’s about the time a fighter typically lets go, especially if the referee rushes in for the stoppage. Unfortunately, Narmatov didn’t let go and continued to squeeze, forcing the referee to actually choke Narmatov before he released the submission.

It was pretty insane to see. Check out the video footage below:

This has Rousimar Palhares written all over it and Narmatov should have been disqualified for his actions, but that wasn’t the case. He was crowned featherweight champion and walked away with the title, while Saidakbarova was left to pick up the pieces.

Charles Oliveira ended up claiming the vacant UFC lightweight title with a win over Michael Chandler last weekend at UFC 262, but his coach believes he could have done better.

Oliveira, who entered the main event clash riding an eight-fight win streak, was participating in his first UFC title fight since joining the promotion 11 years ago. “Do Bronx” encountered some issues in the first round as Chandler nearly finished him with strikes, but the veteran regrouped to earn a TKO stoppage in the second.

Now we’re learning that Oliveira suffered a leg injury during training and wasn’t able to stick with the same gameplan against Chandler. “Do Bronx” had planned to use more kicks to limit the explosiveness and mobility of Chandler. It would have come in handy considering Chandler was able to use his athleticism and distance control to clobber Oliveira with some hard punches in the first round, but “Do Bronx” eventually adapted.

Oliveira’s coach, Diego Lima, detailed the pre-fight injury in a recent interview with Ag Fight.

“Charles slipped. He hurt his leg, so we couldn’t kick too much. It took us some time before we could start kicking. We started kicking only two weeks prior to the fight and kicking was one of the things we wanted to do the most in the fight. Nothing fazes Charles, though. He’s bulletproof, it’s amazing.”

Luckily, Oliveira was able to re-define his gameplan and score some solid control time on the ground in the early going. Once he decided to open up on the feet to begin the second round he was able to starch Chandler with a flurry of punches and eventually captured the lightweight strap. It would have been interesting to see if Oliveira could have taken Chandler out sooner if his leg was at full strength.

For now, Oliveira will be able to heal up whatever injuries he endured leading into and suffered at UFC 262. He will need every weapon in his arsenal moving forward as the UFC’s undisputed lightweight champion.

Nate Diaz is in high gear for his awaited return to the cage, which will take place next month at UFC 263 against No. 3-ranked welterweight contender Leon Edwards.

Diaz, who hasn’t competed since a TKO loss to Jorge Masvidal back in Nov. 2019, was originally expected to face Edwards at UFC 262 earlier this month. However, a small injury bumped Diaz from the card and forced the promotion to re-book the matchup for the next pay-per-view (PPV) event.

Luckily, Diaz and Edwards are still scheduled to fight for five rounds, which is a first for a non-title, non-main event UFC fight. With 25 minutes to work with and extra time to prepare Diaz is pulling out all the stops for his UFC 263 clash with “Rocky.” In fact, Diaz is giving fight fans an inside look into his training camp and what he’s been doing to gameplan for a fighter like Edwards, who hasn’t tasted defeat since a decision loss to Kamaru Usman back in 2015.

Diaz’s recent training camp footage can be seen in the above video player.

If Diaz is able to take out Edwards it will once again set him up for a massive fight his next time out. Current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman is already running out of top contenders so maybe Diaz can sneak in for a title shot with a win over the No. 3-ranked guy. Edwards is no slouch, though, as the English striker has looked better and better over the past five years.

UFC 263 will take place on June 12 live on ESPN+ PPV from inside Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, with a middleweight title fight rematch between Israel Adesanya and Marvin Vettori serving as the main event.

For more UFC 263 fight card news click here.

The pay-per-view (PPV) numbers are in for UFC 262 and they’re much better than expected.

UFC 262, which took place on May 15th from inside a sold out Toyota Center in Houston, Tex., saw Charles Oliveira knock out Michael Chandler in the main event to claim the vacant UFC lightweight title (highlights HERE). It was Oliveira’s ninth-straight win inside of the Octagon and his first shot at UFC gold in over 10 years with the promotion.

According to Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand, UFC 262 produced at least 300,000 domestic PPV buys through ESPN+. These preliminary numbers are just for U.S. viewers. International numbers were not included.

Considering UFC 262 lost a co-main event clash involving welterweights Nate Diaz and Leon Edwards these early PPV numbers are fairly impressive. Hardcore fans understand how good Oliveira and Chandler both are, but they aren’t considered major UFC stars at this point in time. Producing these type of numbers is a big success, especially considering this was just the second Octagon appearance by Chandler.

Oliveira is likely to defend his UFC lightweight title next against the winner of Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor 3, which goes down at UFC 264 this July. As for Chandler, he nearly finished “Do Bronx” in the first round of their UFC 262 main event clash so one more win should be all he needs to put himself back in contention.

UFC will return to the PPV business with UFC 263 set to go down on June 12 live on ESPN+ PPV from Glendale, Arizona. A middleweight clash between current UFC champion Israel Adesanya and surging contender Marvin Vettori will serve as the main event.