Conor McGregor's Old UFC Rival Offers Guidance to Michael Chandler

Former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez believes that Michael Chandler is "a hell of an athlete," and his best path to victory is to wrestle Conor McGregor early in their bout.

Chandler is slated to fight McGregor later this year, the details of which are still unconfirmed.

Alvarez, having fought both Chandler and McGregor, offered his unique insight on the matchup during an interview with ESPN MMA on May 22:

"[Michael] Chandler is a hell of an athlete, I just think that stylistically the way he's been fighting, and the strategy he's been going about fighting... isn't the way to get it done against Conor McGregor.

"I would implore him if I was his coach to change his style, to go for single legs, to go for shots and force Conor to wrestle early. You have to force him to wrestle early, so he [doesn't] have the powerful tools that he's able to take advantage of [with] all these other guys.

"[listing off "McGregor's tools"], quick feet, good range, great striking; you take that away when you wrestle him early. Wrestle him early, tire his shoulders down, tire his legs down and slow him down and he's half the striker that he can be when he's fully energized.

"So the problem with [Michael] Chandler that I'm seeing is that he's trying to please the fans too much, and that doesn't always win you a world title.

"Pleasing the fans is great, It'll make you millions of dollars, It'll do all of that, but getting to the gold, keeping the gold, it's a sort of a selfish thing and maybe he needs to be a little more selfish in his gameplanning to win the fight rather than excite the crowd."

Chandler, known for his crowd-pleasing style, has actually revealed that he competes in MMA not just for the payday, but for the "epic moments of maximum amounts of impact".

The American fighter revealed his motives for a McGregor matchup during an appearance on "The MMA Hour" in November 2021:

"Everybody wants to fight Conor [McGregor], obviously; but I want to fight him for a different reason. I think everybody wants to fight Conor because they know it's a big payday.

"I'm here in mixed martial arts to do big things, to be in big fights [on] big stages against big opponents and big arenas with a lot of eyeballs.

"That's what excites me about a fight with Conor. I got a ton of respect for Conor because what Conor has done --- and people will discredit what he has done because of certain things he has said --- but what he has done [has revolutionized] the entire sport.

"The sport of mixed martial arts is better because Conor McGregor is in it; It's bigger and it's got more eyeballs on it because of what Conor has done. So to share the octagon with him, that's why I want to do it.

"It's not the payday, It's not the 'red panty night' .... of course do I want that? Do I want to provide for my family? Of course, but I want epic moments of maximum amounts of impact."

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