Matt Brown questions if Michael Chandler is ‘either past his prime or just wasn’t UFC material to begin with’
Michael Chandler suffered his toughest loss to date since joining the UFC roster after Paddy Pimblett stopped him inside three rounds at UFC 314 with a vicious barrage of strikes on the ground this past Saturday night.
Unlike almost every other performance he’s had inside the octagon, Chandler didn’t turn this fight into a war, and he never came close to finishing Pimblett. Instead, the 38-year-old veteran slowed down dramatically after the first round, and Pimblett really started pouring on the punishment before ending his night in devastating fashion.
The loss dropped Chandler to 2-5 in the UFC with this latest setback serving as his third defeat in a row overall. This latest performance forced UFC legend Matt Brown to question if perhaps Chandler’s best days are already behind him while also giving credit to Pimblett on a job well done.
“For me there’s a little bit of questions in me: OK, how great really was Chandler or is Paddy really all that?” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Chandler has fought the absolute best, and he’s beat some really good guys, too, especially in Bellator. He beat some really good guys. I guess there’s a little question mark in my head like was Chandler just not UFC material. Maybe did his head get a little bit off course? He played a little bit too much into the Arturo Gatti role that Dana [White] called him? Maybe bought into that a little bit too much? Or is Paddy really all that good? He certainly looked good last weekend. Did he look like a champion? I’m not sure about that.
“Chandler is either past his prime or just wasn’t UFC material to begin with and Paddy is a top 10 guy. I think both things could be true at the same time. Paddy proved to me he is a top 10 guy.”
There’s definitely an argument to be made that Chandler spent his best years in Bellator and arrived in the UFC a little too late.
While he certainly put on some tremendous, jaw-dropping fights since signing with the UFC, Chandler never found the same level of success where he was a multi-time champion with Bellator. Then again, Brown knows from personal experience that there’s no better competition than the fighters Chandler faced in the UFC and perhaps he just couldn’t match that.
“Chandler, I have the questions was his best years in Bellator?” Brown said. “That’s what I mean, he’s a great fighter, I don’t want to take anything away from him. I get the feeling his best years were in Bellator. He got to the UFC a little bit too late, he was maybe out of his prime, or he just kind of bought into the hype a little bit too much.
“Kind of what I thought Justin Gaethje was going to turn into. The guy that just goes out and puts on wars for fun. Sort of the old Chris Lytle type guy, I’m just fighting for Fight of the Night type guy. [Gaethje] certainly didn’t turn out that way, but it seems Michael Chandler has turned out that way.”
As far as what comes next for Chandler, that’s a little tougher to predict.
Prior to UFC 314, Brown suggested that perhaps Chandler might want to start thinking about a new career outside of fighting if he loses to Pimblett because his path back to the top of the division would seem almost insurmountable.
Chandler always stated that he was “not here for a long time, here for a good time” while doubling down on his desire to eventually become a UFC champion. With three losses in a row on his record now, Chandler might not ever get another shot at UFC gold again before his career is over.
That’s why Brown wonders if this might be the end for Chandler unless perhaps a certain Irish superstar finally decides to fight again.
“Chandler has said it himself. It’s a belt or nothing,” Brown said. “It looks at this point like it’s nothing. If that’s really his mentality, if he’s going to be who he says that he is, it’s time to walk away and that’s pretty clear. If he wants to just keep fighting, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. I think you put him in there with some guys who are just going to throw down and make fun fights. He’s still got the name where he could be at least a co-main event if not even a main event on Fight Nights or something.
“Probably not going to get any pay-per-view draws at this point unless Conor McGregor comes back. Now’s the perfect time to make the Conor fight I guess. Both on losing streaks and nothing to really fight for so why not go fight in bare-knuckle against Conor or something. I don’t know what you do if you’re Michael Chandler. He has a good problem. He has a huge name and the options are all over for him.”
As much as it pains him to say it, Brown knows that Chandler really stands at a crossroads where his career is concerned, and it’s impossible not to wonder if we’ve already seen him fight for the final time.
“I hate saying that about such a warrior like that,” Brown said about Chandler. “But that’s what it is. He’s won one fight in the UFC, and I’m not counting Tony Ferguson because that’s not a fight. What do you do at this point?”