Michael Chandler has been with Bellator since 2010. He could still stay with them after an exclusive negotiating period that he’s going through right now. But there’s also a chance he could be a free agent, and if he is, I would expect to see him on “Fight Island” fighting on a UFC card in the future.
“I haven’t left yet. I’m still in the free agency process. Bellator and every organization have the opportunity to re-sign their talent before their contract ends,” Chandler stated. “It’s Fight Island. People said it wasn’t going to happen, and it did.
“Dana White makes it happen. I don’t know the guy. We’ve never shaken hands. We’ve never negotiated. I respect the heck out of him and what he’s done for the sport. I don’t make a living for the last 11 years of my life and make a great living for my family if there is no Dana White and his blood, sweat, and tears…Dana White made the first move and got all our paychecks back…If I sign with UFC, I’d love to fight on Fight Island.”
At 35, he doesn’t want to hear about how he can perform at his age.
“People like yourself call this a young man’s sport, and it’s actually not a young man’s sport. If you look at every big name. Every big name out there, for the most part, they are post-32,” Chandler reiterated. “At 34, I would venture to say my body is better than most 24-year-old’s. I’m ready to compete for another 3-5 years.”
This athlete was an All-American wrestler at the University of Missouri. Maintaining his weight is something he’s been doing expertly for his entire adult life.
“As a wrestler, you learn what hand-to-hand combat is,” he answered quickly. “I had 130 matches in my college career, 200 in high school, and a bunch of matches in-between over the summers. Hundreds and hundreds of times of cutting weight. It never gets easier. It was as hard as all the rest of them. I understand how to compete in hand-to-hand combat, mano vs. mano, me versus you.”
At that point, I knew I didn’t want to step in the ring with him. But I respected the fact that he talked about cutting weight safely. That’s a hot-button topic for sure.
Chandler is into health and fitness and he talked about PSO-RITE
More about that here:
It’s a new line of self-massage tools designed to mimic the hand and elbow of a massage therapist. The PSO-RITE brand currently comprises five premier sports and wellness massage tools, including the original PSO-RITE, PSO-SPINE, PSO-STICK, PSO-MINI, and PSO-KEY, all designed to relieve stress and stiffness in the muscles and body, improve blood circulation, and enhance recovery and performance. Originally designed to target the psoas muscle, which holds much of the body’s physical and emotional stress (and is where PSO-RITE gets its name), PSO-RITE’s stable structure gives you the ability (no matter the size or shape of your body) to target this unique, hard-to-reach muscle and any part of the body that holds muscle tension.
After his fight was over, he loosened up his eating restrictions a bit.
“We went on an 11-day vacation. I was away from my wife and son for 99% of the time for a 12-week period. My wife is the most beautiful human being inside and out on the planet earth and my son needs his father around. We’re just out here on vacation and yes we enjoyed some pizza and opening up the menu a little bit.”
Let’s see what happens next for Chandler.
