Insight with Chris Van Vliet - Michael Chandler: The Next UFC Star In WWE?, Fighting Conor McGregor, "See You At The Top!"

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

Michael Chandler (@MikeChandlerMMA) is a UFC fighter and podcaster. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Nashville, TN to discuss the upcoming UFC event set to take place at The White House, potentially fighting Conor McGregor at the show, cutting a promo on an episode of WWE Raw, possibly pursuing pro wrestling after MMA, why he ends his promos with "See you at the top", and more!Please support our sponsors!   PURE PLANK: The future of core fitness! Use the code CVV to save 10% on Pure Plank designed by Adam Copeland & Christian: https://gopureplank.com/?ref=tibcloux FACTOR: Get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year with the code INSIGHT50OFF at https://factormeals.com/INSIGHT50OFF   SEAT GEEK: Use my code for 10% off your next SeatGeek order*: https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/CVV2025 Sponsored by SeatGeek. *Restrictions apply. Max $20 discount   NORDVPN: Exclusive deal! https://nordvpn.com/cvv Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee! PRIZEPICKS: Download the app today and use code INSIGHT to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup!  TIMELINE: Go to https://timeline.com/insightto get 10% off your order of Mitopure!   VUORI: Get 20% off your first purchase! Get yourself some of the most comfortable and versatile clothing on the planet at https://vuori.com/cvv   ROCKET MONEY: Join Rocket Money today and reach your financial goals faster: https://rocketmoney.com/cvv MIRACLE MADE: Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made! Go to https://trymiracle.com/CVV and use the code CVV to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF   ZOCDOC: Instantly book a top-rated doctor today at https://zocdoc.com/insight   BONCHARGE: Use the code CVV to save 15% off your infrared sauna blanket at https://boncharge.com/cvv   BLUECHEW: Get your first month of BlueChew for free with the code CVV at https://bluechew.com   For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://podcast.chrisvanvliet.com If you have ever enjoyed any of these episodes, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast or Spotify? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.    Follow CVV on social media:  Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet TikTok: tiktok.com/@Chris.VanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Well, man, great to see you. You too, man. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me. Well, I guess I am. We're at your house. You're on my show, but I'm at your house. Exactly, man.

Glad it worked out, dude. Welcome to Nashville. Yeah, well, this may be our future home. I know. This is just a secret plot to try to get you to move to Nashville. Oh, well, it's working. My wife's already sold on it. I think I'm pretty sold on it too.

You got to get the wife sold. Then you're like, okay, I can live anywhere. Yeah, Rachel was like, you know, I love that place. I totally live there. Good people, man. Yeah. It seems to be a great spot. What's so, like, excited to be here, too.

It is. Yeah, I mean, it will, and I think the people that attracts, you know, like, you're, you're attracting people from other places where they want to, they want a certain change or a different lifestyle or whatever. And then it's also a thriving city, a lot of stuff going on. You can, it's one of those cities where if you want to just have a blast and go freaking party and just have just a nonstop action life, you can do that. And you can also, like, if you just want to hide away and be a hermit, like I am half the time, it's like, it's a very slow city.

So it's got everything that you need. There's a lot of pro wrestlers here. A lot of pro wrestlers here. There are. Shamis got after it. I tried to kill him. Tried to kill Shamus. That Celtic warrior workout was wild.

It was good. Well, you know, it's a little different because obviously the way I train and I explained it, it's all like strength plus speed equals power because obviously you want to have explosiveness and you want to be able to move side to side and jump high and move fast, but then also be strong. So a little bit different change of speed within what Seamus was used to. What was the hardest thing you think for him in that workout? Um, I mean, I think it was just the overall workload of, of, because I don't think people really know, like, if you're just lifting weights, it gets a certain amount of hard, but then when you couple it with something explosive, now all of a sudden those, those fast twitch muscles start engaging, which increases the heart rate and you're doing something kind of more dynamic. So it was just the coupling of both. And if your body's not really used to it, it's just like, you could do just something very, very simple, like we did the belt squat, but then we did jumps right after. So there's like six, you know, jumps as high as you can. So you're adding the

cardio with the strength. So I think it was just the overall cardio workload of the thing. And then we did the, uh, the sled push after, which thank God we didn't have to do too many of those because it was like, okay, we got some, we got some good footage of this. Yeah. Let's let's be done. I feel like you trained so different from a lot of UFC fighters. Like you're so focused on strength. Yeah. Where does that come from? Well, I can tell you this, I can tell you this right now. I believe, and this is my personal opinion, there's no. way to ever know what my career would have looked like had I not focused so much on strengthening, conditioning. But I believe that, you know, whether it's wrestling, you know, for me, it was

college wrestling or whether it's fighting or whether it's any sport, the modality that you're doing, the competition, the working on the skills, all that stuff is very, very important. But ultimately, if you don't have a durable body and your body doesn't last and your body can't withstand, the workload can't withstand the damage, can't withstand the pressure, then eventually your body is going to fall apart, and then you see guys getting injured. I mean, I am just so blessed, man, like, I've been in some wars, and I have trained, I train very, very hard. Like, my, my, my level five is most people's level 10, so I'm constantly pushing myself, but my body is so durable, I think, because I lift weights a lot. I think lifting weights being strong in the end range,

you know, like strong in the middle of a squat, strong in the middle of a lunge, strong in in the middle of these movements in these precarious little situations that we get in in wrestling and grappling and MMA and submissions and stuff. My body is just strong. So I think partly, obviously I want to be strong. I want to be explosive. I want to have good cardio. I want to be competent, but I think it really does bulletproof the body. And I think this idea for people like as we age, it's like, well, my body's just worn out. And I'm like, I'm 39. And like, I guarantee I've put more miles on my body, like every single muscle fiber than most people. So I don't think we wear out.

I think it's the lack of, it's the lack of movement and the lack of kind of pushing yourself that eventually kind of wears you down. I'm drawn to this idea of like doing hard things. Yeah. There's so many things in our life that are done that are easy, right? And there's so many things that are built for comfort. Yeah. And I think getting outside of that comfort zone and doing one hard thing a day or for something, people, maybe one hard thing a week. I think it really starts to reveal who you really are.

It does. And it just kind of, I think it expands, like, what is this life if we're not trying to just expand who we are, right? And you don't have to go, you don't have to say have some crazy, crazy lofty goal of whether it's running an ultra marathon or doing, thinking of like the craziest thing that you could do, just get to the next level. And the only way you can kind of get to the next level is to find out what the next small level is and the next small level. And I think that's why I love whether it's lifting weights, working out, whether it's sparring, grappling, wrestling, you know, the fighting. There's always an opponent and there's always a new gear. And whether you're into that and you train a lot or you don't train at all, whether it's, you know, doing things that are hard, whether even having hard

conversations or doing an ice bath or we're like sticking to a diet for four days, all those things are really hard. And then once you do it, then you realize, well, shoot, I am more competent. Because I do believe that aimlessness and lack of purpose are the biggest ailments in society. And a lot of that stems from breaking promises to ourselves. If you break a promise to yourself, like, I can break a promise to you. It makes me a bad friend. But I break a promise to myself. It makes me trust myself less. So then I can, I don't show up the best version of myself, right? So I think doing hard things when you say, hey, I'm doing this and I'm going to keep this promise to myself, even though it's hard, even though it sucks, even though it's painful and I don't want to do it, it's in those moments that you can gain a little bit more trust. You drop a little penny into the trust bank every single day.

And then eventually, like, dang, I'm wealthy when it comes to trusting myself and more competent, comes with more confidence, comes with more success, comes with more of what God created has to be. What's that idea of showing up for yourself, too? If you're showing up for yourself, I think it makes it that much easier to show up for other people as well. Yeah. Well, I think that's, you know, I think I hit 30 years old and I realized, okay, I'm closer to the end than I am the beginning. I really got to start taking ownership of my mindset for sure and my body and like recovery and making sure I really dial everything in. But then also around that same time, too, we adopted my first son, Hap. I got married at 27, 28, debris.

We adopted Hap. Now we have Ace. We have Drew. So I have three children. I have a wife. made promises to all of them. I made promises to business partners, made promises to my partners,

promises to so many people, plus the promise to myself to try to squeeze every ounce of, like, talent and gifts and abilities that I have. Because you don't want to get to the end and be like, well, I had a lot more left in the tank, you know? So if you can just keep those promises to yourself, you're going to show up better for everyone,

especially the most important people in your life. For me, obviously, that's my wife and my children. And then everything else. It's just a cascade effect of creating more success and then a little failure and then success and then failure and then figuring it all out as you go, you know? With the training you do and the weight training you do, you fight at 155. What are you walking around at? I'm like 188 right now.

I'm trying to keep it below 190. But it's pretty easy for me to get up to 190, you know? So, and that's with me not really focusing too much. Like I said, like if I wanted to put on more muscle mass, I'd probably get closer to that 200 range. but I think I don't really necessarily want to be there. But when you get down to 155, you are lean. Yeah. Vains and your legs lean.

Yeah. And that's, you know, I actually was talking to somebody yesterday because it's, it always baffles people, the whole weight cutting thing, right? It's like, dude, you lose 15 pounds in 12 hours or whatever it is, 15 pounds in a day. And obviously, it's just water weight. But anytime you've seen a guy or a gal get up on the stage at UFC weigh-ins and they're like kind of falling over, you can just tell they're on death's door, it's because the weight cut for them started like a couple days ago.

Whereas for me, if I know I'm fighting in June, my weight cut starts kind of in like April for two months straight, eating perfectly, sleeping perfectly, supplementing perfectly, obviously training two or three times a day. And then you just get your body so lean while you're also adding competence and durability through all the training. And then you just become a well-oiled machine, but you just obviously the body fat weighs a certain amount. So we want to get that body fat down as little as possible and then suck the water out of your muscles and then get down to 155 pounds for about 10 minutes luckily. Get on the scale. They're like, okay, Chandler, 156 or whatever,

and step on the scale, flex, and then boom, just hydrate back up. And I'm like 172 that night. And feel like you may be one of the most jacked UFC fighters at all time. Well, it's not that hard because it's... What are you talking about? Well, I mean, it is, but it's my job. And this is what I always say to people also, too.

They're like, God, I wish I looked like that. And I'm like, yeah, but it is my job. And it's like, my job I take very seriously. But not every fighter looks like you. No. And they think it's a lack of discipline or they don't have to. I mean, like, you know, there's certain guys where it's like they don't cut as much weight so therefore they can get away with a little bit of body fat or what has worked for them in the past. They've always made weights.

They're like, well, I guess I'll just kill myself basically the last two days and like look at a like a zombie. And I just always thought it was like, what's a little bit of extra discipline, a little bit of extra discipline, a little bit of extra. a try, a little bit of extra planning, a little bit of extra delayed gratification to pour my full self into it to make the weight cut easier to then ultimately probably perform a lot better than if I had a bad weight cut. So it's the scariest thing in the world. When you're, you sign on the dotted line, you've got your opponent, you've got your date and you're like, okay, well, now I got to make weight. So I need to make it as easy as possible. And I've had a couple where I'm like, God, this is not an easy weight cut. Like this is a tough one. And ultimately,

it's always going to happen because you're traveling. I mean, I flew to Abu Dhabi twice, you know, back and forth, made weight two times in Abu Dhabi, 16 hour flight there, 16 hours back, 48 hours in quarantine during COVID, all that stuff. That messes with the weight cut. Sure. And water retention, all that stuff. And it's a scary thing because I've 25 years of hand-to-hand combat, wrestling in high school, college, and now mixed martial arts for 16 years.

I've never missed weight, and I've never pulled out of a fight. Wow. Like, the reliability factor for me, like, my word is my bond. If I signed my name to a contract, if I can walk to the octagon, if I can walk to the ring, I'm showing up. And that reliability factor, not just in my profession, but for my family, for my business partners, for everything else. It carries over in everything.

I feel like you're a WWE superstar who happens to fight in the UFC. Because I was there in Anaheim when you cut that promo on Raw. Were you supposed to cut that promo? No. Well, so I asked for it. So I was like... So Samantha Irvin, she introduces you. She goes, everybody, UFC, lightweight.

Michael Chandler, you grab the mic from her. Yeah. So I was there. That was, that was, they knew that was going to happen. Like, because I wanted to ask for permission. Like, once again, going back to like, hey, I'm not going to show up to WWE and make it about me. So I asked, I forget, I forget who I was sitting with, but they asked, and it went up, went up to Nick. It went up to flagpole to Nick, but like, hey, we're going to introduce Chandler.

But I was like, well, hey, why don't you just give me the microphone? And they were like, you want the microphone? And I was like, yeah, I want the microphone. And they were like, hold on. You know, like everyone's got the earpieces or like someone, one of the production, people went up the flag pulled a Nick and next like, yeah, give him the microphone. But then they were like, they did say, hey, make sure you do not rip the, rip the microphone out of her hand. You know, they will freaking be mad at you if you do that.

I'm like, okay. So I kind of like, okay, I'll take it. But it was a little bit of a passionate grab, but it wasn't like, give me that thing, you know. And then it was during the time, obviously, the UFC was just in Anaheim the night before. And yeah, it was during the time where we were kind of still working on, you know, when am I going to fight Connor and all that stuff? And yeah, I just ripped a promo, jumped up on the seats. And then, like, afterwards, I'm off camera.

And then Pat McAfee is like, we got Michael Chandler. Michael Chandler's ripped his shirt off because I ripped my shirt off. Then I was just flexing in there. And the whole crowd is going crazy. It had like freaking 60 million views in like 24 hours, you know. It was just, it was cool. It was fun and like, that's my environment, man. I love entertaining people.

I love to be, I love to be around people and just say, like, I don't, I'm a, it's kind of weird because I don't love being the center of attention. But when it's time and that lights come on and it's my moment, I'm there, man. And I turn it on. Turn it on. And just, and have fun with it and enjoy it. And I feel like that's what I've always done with my fight career too. It's like, wins and losses are very important.

But my, my number one goal is always to make people feel something. Like, if you're buying. buying a pay-per-view. If you worked a blue collar 40-hour work week this week, you just took your work boots off, you invited some buddies over and you're going to watch me fight, I'm going to pour every single ounce of myself into that performance. And I think you don't see that with certain guys and gals in the sport. You know, it becomes too much of a, well, I'm too afraid to lose, so therefore I'm not going to put myself out there. I'm not going to take this. I've made so many ill-advised decisions in there, like, I'm going to do this and see what happens. Like, I don't

care if I don't care if something bad happens. I'm just going to go ahead and do it. And I think that's why I've been known as one of the most, if not the most entertaining fighters in the UFC, because I care about the wins and losses, but I also care about fulfilling my passion and what I'm doing. And if sometimes, sometimes focusing so much on the, on the technique and the game plan and all that stuff can just pull away the actual carnal nature, like the pure nature of, of I'm fighting you right now in hand-to-hand combat instead of thinking like, well, I don't want to lose because I got this belt or I don't lose because of the world ranking or I don't want to lose because of for losses sake. You know, it's like the man in the arena, man. Like fail, if you're

going to fail, fail while daring greatly. And you're out there and I'm living my passion. And I love God created me for hand-to-hand combat in the wrestling mats, maybe in the WWE ring after fighting, but right now in the UFC. You don't do fight, post-fight interviews. You do post-fight promos. Were you a wrestling fan? thing growing up. I was, man. Yeah, I, dude, Diamond Dallas Page, Steve Austin, the Rock, like that middle school, big time, middle school and high school. So you're talking attitude era. Like, we're about the same age. So like late 90s. Yeah. Late 90s, man. Like, that was, dude, yeah. And just watch. And I was, I think what I loved about it, too, is I was always kind of a shy,

shy kid. I was, I was a small guy from a small town who was taught to do small things. People around me, you know, we were just talking about, I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, but not downtown. I grew up in rural outside of St. Louis. And where I came from was kind of just like, hey, don't ruffle any feathers, you know, kind of blend in with the herd. Don't think of yourself too highly for the fear of maybe making other people feel insecure around you. And I was kind of an insecure kid. And the big guys had hair under their armpits before me and they were bigger than me. And I was, so I was always just kind of like, well, I'm going to go with the flow kind of guy.

So I think watching wrestling was you watched the way that they carried themselves. And you're like, man, I see a little bit of. of something inside of me in that ring right now. And I think that's why people love wrestling so much as well, because it's beautiful storytelling. And it's been there's beautiful rivalries. But then there's also the redemption stories. And it's,

I was just into it big, big time. And then now I've kind of come back around and even more into it now than I probably was back then. And it's been, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah, I saw you at Raw in Nashville like a month or two ago. And I was like, he's a real fan. Yeah, I mean, I brought my son. We actually, I drove seven hours.

Actually, yeah, I drove seven hours that day, just got home. So my son and his buddy George were at Kanakukuk in southern Missouri. So me and my friend Michael Kaplan drove all the way from Branson, Missouri, all the way, got to my house here, changed up real quick out of my travel clothes. And we went straight downtown to Bridgetown and went straight there. And, you know, it was backstage and saw Triple H. And it was cool, man. So who were the people you love watching right now in WWA? Man, Jay Uso.

You know, I like watching Seth Rawlins. Man, you know, you know, who I know, I know he's, I would like just give a shout out to Daniel Brian. I know he's not there anymore. Was he in WWE and then he went? Now he's in AEW. Now he's retired. Right now he's in AEW.

But now he's retired, obviously. But I think that story, like I've watched a lot of stuff on him. And I actually had a connection with him a long time ago because my grappling coach was a catch wrestling coach when I first started fighting in Vegas. And he was training with Daniel Bryan. in Vegas at Extreme Couture. So I kind of like got to watch him a little bit. And he's like, yeah, he's like one of the biggest wrestlers in the world.

I'm like, no way, dude. And also I'm like, well, he's not 6-3, 2-40, you know, like a lot of the guys. I'm like, well, I could maybe be a Daniel Bryan someday. So you're saying you want to be a pro wrestler? I mean, I think it intrigues me. I think it intrigues me. I think it's a lot of fun. I do think I would enjoy it.

I think there would be some intrigue and, interest on both sides. And I think, you know, spending some time with Seamus and a couple of other friends I have. You know, Diamond Dallas Page has been a friend of mine for a very, very long time also, too. Yeah, same. He's the best. And he's really cool about him, too, which would be kind of similar to my story where he's like, you know, because he's like, he always said my career didn't take off until I was 40. Yeah. You know, because like he came in to, he wasn't a manager or something? Yeah, he was a manager. He didn't debut until he was 35. 35, right? And then he was like, then he took off at like that 40, you know. And, you know, I think that's one of the cooler things about the sport as well.

It's like a lot of mature, you know, men. You know, it's not, I get the sport of mixed martial arts is a kind of a younger man's game, but not really. We can get into that a little bit. I think, I think young is awesome and your body feels great, but you haven't quite matured enough to get to that like old, not old man strength, but kind of that maturity of your body. And I think you don't really hit that to like 32, 33. So, you know, I'm just a fan of the sport.

Love to go to the live events, obviously. Love to watch it on TV. obviously now, W.W is now on ESPN at the time of this. The PLEs are, yeah. Yeah, you know, so it's pretty cool, man. Like, it's a lot of fun to watch. This episode is brought to you by HIMS. Tired at trying to figure out what actually works for hair loss?

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Get delicious, ready to eat meals delivered with Factor. Offer only. Offer only for new factor customers with code and qualifying auto-renewing subscription purchase. You tick a lot of the boxes of a WWE superstar. You've got the look. You can cut a promo. You're obviously wildly athletic. We would have some fun out there. We'd have some fun.

Now we've just got to figure out who I'm going to wrestle. I mean, anyone. Anyone. You mentioned Seth Rollins. That guy has a banger match with everybody. Yeah. You know, and I'd like to kind of get into it a little bit, too, with, you know, Seamus. And is Drew McIntyre's in town?

Yeah, he looks here. Um, there was another, there's another, there's quite a few TNA people to live here as well. Yeah, because TNA was headquartered here. That's right. Yeah, there is probably five to ten wrestlers. Yeah. So we got to get a little contingent here and just all, I feel like train with each other. I think you need a ring in the backyard or something.

Yeah, we do. We need to do that. We got a gym down, uh, right down the road, Nashville MMA. Man, we got some space. So we maybe put a little room there. Okay. You know, do some little MMA training, little boxing, wrestling, grappling. And then we do a little, uh, wrestling training there.

Yeah. bounce off the ring, jump off the top rope. Bobby Lashley, I wrestled at the same time as Bobby Lashley, too. So he wrestled at Missouri Valley, which was, I believe, Moberly, Missouri within like 45 minutes of Columbia, Missouri, where I wrestled at Mizzou. So I would see Bobby Lashley wrestling in college. And then he made obviously a great transition.

So he's been cool. Tell me the story behind this Hulk Hogan lunchbox. Oh, yeah. What is this? That's like a vintage one. This is vintage. So this right here, I don't know what the best. camera is. So this is from 1988. You can tell, because it says, Titan Sport 1988

488. So my mom, it was one of those things where my mom keeps a lot of stuff. And I'm like, mom, throw that stuff, dude. Get rid of all this stuff. Get rid of all my old shoes and all that stuff. But she's like, okay, but I got something for you. She brought a couple, my All-American plaque from wrestling and stuff. And she's like, but also I got this lunchbox. So this right here, it still says, it says Chandler on the inside. Yeah, right there. She wrote that in like, 1988 or something. The thermos. The thermos.

The thermos, W.W.F. You know, and obviously it's got a little wear and tear on it. So this was my lunchbox back when I was, I don't know, five, six, seven years old. You were a Hallcomania growing up. It was a Hulkomania guy, man. I mean, obviously everybody was a Hulkomania guy. You know, him, Rick Flair, you know, two guys I didn't mention earlier. Sure.

I've been fortunate to hang out with Rick Flair a couple times. You know, we did a couple commercials together. He just did. This is wild. Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Just to think that that ink on that Sharpie has been there since, you know, 1980 something. Pretty cool, man. That's, that's so cool.

Well, look, there's been a lot of UFC athletes who have transitioned to MMA. A lot of them very successful. Yep. Do you think about, you're going to turn 40 next year? Yep. Do you think there's still time to do this? I think, I mean, I think my body still feels phenomenal. You know, we talk about, like, I've taken, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to

toot my own horn, but also not, uh, not like emphasizing enough how well I've taken care of my body. Like there's, there's a reason why I'm, I'm still competing at this high of a level at this age and a lot of guys kind of fizzle out. I think I've just taken really good care of my body. I've preserved my body. I've taken some damage, obviously as every athlete has, but man, I wake up in the morning just chipper. I still jump just as high, run just as fast, punch just as hard. I have a zeal for life. Like, and I love. And I love. I love to, I love the platform that God has given me to be in front of people and WWE makes a lot of sense, you know, but we'll see. I need to go. I got to, I'd have to go and

prove my worth. I'd have to, you know, make them believe that I could do it and enjoy it and then deal with the, the travel and, you know, the lifestyle of being a WW superstar and get into some matches and beat some people up. Ever since you came into UFC, you've had a singular goal of becoming UFC world champion. Is that still the goal? It still is, man. I think where I'm at, where I've been in my entire UFC run,

you're always just a fight or two away, you know? And a fight or two could be two months. I mean, I fought twice in a five-month period, just, you know, November and in April. You know, so things can happen really quickly. The sport moves very fast. Injuries are happening. Guys get matched.

You know, when I came into the UFC, Kabeb retired, Justin Gaiti had just fought for the world time. So he couldn't he couldn't fight for the world title next and then Porriet got offered the title, but he was tied up with a trilogy or a trilogy or rematch trilogy with Connor. So they didn't he didn't want that. So like he was kind of disqualified himself from the title shot. So all of a sudden it's me and Charles Oliverer fighting for the title. Like the matchups are happening. There's different there's different rivalries and storylines going on kind of between fighters and guys have history. So you never really quite know. And I've every single fight. that I have fought, if you go back to the rankings of when I signed with the UFC, and I have my first meeting with Hunter Campbell, and I've stayed true to my word, and they've stayed true to their word. I said, Hunter, I want to come into the UFC, and I, number one, want to be a good thing for your organization. I want to be easy to work with, and I want to do my job. And number

two, I want to have the toughest fights right away. I don't want to be, I don't want to any tiptoe around the top 20, tune up fights. I want to be thrown into the shark and fester waters at the UFC. And then I fought Dan Hooker, who was number five, then Charles Olivera, who was number two. For the title. For the title. Then Justin Gaecchi, who was number two or three at the time. Then Tony Ferguson, who was number seven at the time, but still a perennial top guy, then Dustin Porrier, then Charles Oliver. You know, like, so I fought all the toughest guys. And so they stayed true to their word. I stayed true to mine. I never shied away from a fight. I wanted to fight all the toughest guys.

because I think obviously fighting in Bellator for a decade, there was always this air of like, is he good? Is he not good? He's not fighting the toughest competition. And even for myself, I knew that. I want to talk like I was the best guy in the world, of course. But because I believed I was a top guy, but I hadn't proven it yet. And I didn't want to ever think about me when I lay those gloves down for the last time.

And then I have to go lay my head on the pillow at night that I didn't test myself against the toughest guys. And now I can honestly say I have, you know, and we're talking fight of the year, fight of the night, fight of the night, fight of the night, knock out of the night, debut of the year, and all of my different fights over the last five years. Plus, possibly, you know, the biggest fight in UFC history coming up in 2026, hopefully, and we'll see. So let's talk about that. Is that happening? So we're talking Connor McGregor at the White House.

Yeah, I mean, as we sit here today, I would say I'm cautiously optimistic that that is the fight that's going to happen. and they're definitely doing a fight at the White House. Connor was on the news and done interviews saying he's fighting me at the White House. Dana's doing interviews saying, hey, Connor is definitely motivated to come back. Because the biggest question here isn't, well, is Connor and Chandler going to fight? The biggest question is like, is Connor going to come back? And I think we still don't know.

It remains to be seen. We had a fight lined up last June. He pulled out of the fight for injury. So we'll see how it plays out. and we're still months and months away. There could be a lot of things that happen between now and then. But I'm cautiously optimistic. Like, that's the fight that's going to happen.

At the White House lawn, June-ish of 2026. Right now, it's slated for June 14th. Could change tomorrow. Who knows? A fight of this magnitude, you're talking, you know, building an arena, you know, building a bubble, building a stage, doing whatever they have to do, light it up and, like, do all the things, all the security clearance. You take a UFC card in Vegas.

or wherever where they've done it 85 times, or way more than that, actually, hundreds of times. It becomes like clockwork. This is a brand new one-of-one, never been done before, never will be done again type of event on the grounds of the president's doorstep.

You know, it's like there's a lot of logistical stuff that needs to be figured out. But all I can do is keep the main thing, the main thing, which is train, be ready for June, and then hopefully knock Connor out, get my hand raised.

Well, look, if they're going to have the biggest fight of all time, they're going to want to have the biggest stars of all time there. Yeah. So it makes sense. Connor posted this AI image of you and him with the White House in the background. Did you just open up Instagram one day and when you were like, what the heck is that? I was actually, I was at my father-in-law's farm in Columbia.

We were just driving around on four-wheelers or go-carts or something. All of a sudden, like my phone beeps. I'm like, whatever. And it beeps again. It beeps again. And it beeps again. My phone was just blowing up. And then all of a sudden people started sending me the picture.

So that's how I found out. And then, you know, just the whole media, everything. Like, obviously, the White House gets announced. And then if you remember, like John Jones had just kind of retired, pulled himself out of the testing pool. Then the White House gets announced. He's like, okay, I'm coming back. I want to be at the White House and get myself back in the testing pool. Connor kind of does the same thing, enters the testing pool.

Because I think since Connor was out of the testing pool, when you pull yourself out voluntarily, or even if they or whatever, for whatever reason, you get out of the testing pool, pool, you have to come back in and they have to usually make you wait a full year. You know, because essentially it's like, well, hey, if you got out of the testing pool, we don't know what was going on while you were out of the testing pool. So, therefore, you need a year of clean tests. So you saw kind of that. Everybody wants to be on this card.

And it's also not about making the biggest fights. It's also about making the biggest, most reliable fights. Now, some people would say, well, Connor pulled out of the fight last June. But if you remember who Connor is and how he operates, he had never pulled out of a fight before, a bunch of fights on short notice last fight didn't work out but when it comes of reliability i am the most reliable guy on the roster if they're like hey chanler's on the card he's going to show up he's going to make weight he's going to do what he's supposed to do he's going to do all the promos he's going to do all the media he's going to do every single thing we ask him to because he's just that guy i only

know one way so i'm i'm a i make a lot of sense to be on that card american red white and blue blooded american love this country would love to be a part of that card plus i'm connor's dance partner because we got to finish the ultimate fighter. You know, we did the ultimate fighter 31 and never really sealed the deal and finished that process until we actually fight. And to be clear, his suspension will be over by the time that this fight car comes around. Yeah, so it was retroactive. So I think the way it was explained to me was essentially he pulled out of the fight in June

and then he went on his yacht. Well, so if you remember, it was, it was just a broken pinky toe. So there was talks in June. And that's why I didn't fight Alvara until November. And there was talks like, well, hey, it was June. let's just push it back to August, September, October. Yeah. And I think the UFC was kind of a little bit gun shy where it's like, hey, man, we just had this big promotion.

We promoted you and Chandler June 29th, International Fight Week. We had a press conference in Dublin that we were going to do. And, I mean, I had my flight booked. I got called by Hunter Campbell at like two in the morning and said, hey, you know, don't get on your flight. We're trying to figure some stuff out right now. So they canceled the press conference. So there was just a lot of kind of bad taste. in their mouth of like, hey, we can't just book you two months later. We got to know that you're

actually going to come back and fight and do it. So I think during that time, he was probably like, all right, well, forget you guys, forget this whole thing. This is, you know, how we get as, as human beings, we're just like, okay, I'm fed up with it. All bets are off. So I think he, you know, missed a couple whereabouts. He didn't fail a test. He never failed a test. He just didn't show up for a couple of them. And if you show up or if you miss a couple of them, then you get an automatic suspension. His suspension was 18 months. That 18 months ends in March. and he's clear to go for the White House. How do you see a fight against Connor McGregor going?

Man, I think he's, Connor, I've studied Connor obviously a lot over the last couple of years. I studied him even before I was going to be matched up against him. Hard hitting, left, straight, left hand, loves that pullback left hand. He's put on some size, so he's a little bit bigger. If you watch his last fight with Poria, he was doing pretty decent until the leg break. And Porrier is probably one of the best strikers, if not the best striker.

our sport in general. He's a great, great with his timing, great with his hands. That's a South Paul versus South Paul matchup, so it's a little bit different than me. The good thing is, one thing that people should watch out for when they watch fights this weekend or next weekend is, you know, if you have an Orthodox guy versus a South Paul guy, the power hand, the backhand is kind of your main weapon, which is always great because you got two guys throwing their power hand, his left hand, my right hand. Whereas with two guys who are orthodox, We're more jab, jab heavy, which is still entertaining, but, you know, that big back kick, back leg kick is available and that big back power hand is available. So I think we're both going to come to the center of the octagon in the middle of the White House lawn and absolutely sling leather and may the best men win.

And you know how I fight. That's the goal. We're going to go out there. We're going to put leather on his chin as quickly as possible, hopefully separate him from consciousness, get my hand raised and do a couple backflips. rip off a promo and we'll see. As reliable as you are, we know that if you say you're going to be there, you're going to be there. If Connor can't fight, will you still fight at the White House? Yeah, I think that's, I mean, that's, you know, if I had my way, of course.

If I'm calling the shots, yes, I want to be on the White House card for a multitude of reasons. Yes. Is the main goal and the pie in the sky, best case scenario, me fighting the sports biggest star and kind of finally closing this chapter? You know, I'm a human being, no matter, like, throughout this all. And I can sit here and say, man, it was easy or it was tough. But I had my tough days. It's like, man, waiting is tough for me because I don't really like the wait.

I'm an action guy. Being let down is tough, even though I've been let down a million times in my life, as have you, as has everybody. But the whole process just with the whole Connor saga would be great to just finally close a chapter. Yeah. Put an exclamation mark on it. He owes you a fight. He does. And I think it's the fight that he wants. And I think one thing I've said about Connor publicly is, like, I think he's more, he's more romantic about the sport than people give him credit for. He does realize that when he was on welfare as a plumber in Ireland and John Cabinall, his coach was pulling him off the couch, I'm like, let's get to get to the gym, let's train, get you out of this, you know, funk that he was in. Then he wins the Cage Warriors title. Then he comes over to the UFC and just gets shot out of a cannon, becomes the sports biggest star. he fights Mayweather and all this stuff for as egotistical as people will call him and as as big

as he has gotten as big as a global sports superstar as he is i think he's more respectful and more romantic about the sport than people give him credit for as well as i think he's more of a man of his word than people give him credit for he you know he said a couple times on social medias and stuff and calling me out and use the hashtag unfinished business and it's like and man of my word like he's like i'm a man of my word even though he pulled out of that one fight he's he's he's even though he's, you know, had some little lies here and there, as we all do, when you're kind of, you know, taking people off the trail in the media and all that stuff, he's more of a man of his word than people think.

I could be completely wrong. Maybe he never comes back. And if he does, I wish him well in his retirement, wish him well in his future with him and his family. But I'm fighting on the White House card no matter what. I think I should be on that card. That's my pitch. I will show up. I will be draped in the stars and bars.

I will be the perfect guy to go out there and make people feel something on the White House lawn. and nobody else is guaranteed action more than me. So I'm going to go ahead and do it. Shopping for a car should be exciting, not exhausting. But between misleading prices and hidden fees, it can feel like a maze. That's where Car Gurus comes in. They rank the best deals, verified dealers, and make sure you never pay more than you should.

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deal. That's C-A-R-G-U-R-U-S dot com. This episode is brought to you by Timeline. Have you tried all the health trends, but you're still feeling tired, foggy, or off your game? You're not alone, my friend. It's time to go deeper. We're talking way deeper because true health starts in yourselves. Timeline has the first ever longevity gummies powered by Mitopure. A delicious, easy way to put more energy into your day. These are the only clinically proven urolithin A gummies for strength, endurance, and healthy aging from the inside out. I recently turned 42, and I think a lot about what Life will look like in my 50s, 60s, 70s,

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fight with Connor to happen and you finally had to go? I'm going. going to move on to other opponents for now. It was a personal decision for me because I was just like, hey, me and my wife, my wife, I believe a woman's discernment in a marriage is the most coveted thing that I have in my life. I am kind of constantly hard charge and I'm constantly moving forward and I'm constantly chasing little shiny objects but then figuring out that I don't want that. But I'm chasing this thing that seems like a dead end path. and but she was always been my constant, my rock where we have these conversations. And obviously,

I've got my manager and I've got, I've got friends who I can rely on. But when we have our conversations, and I got a whiteboard over here in my office and we'll sit here and we'll do a white. We actually whiteboarded, you're like, here's the pros and cons. Do you wait for Connor a little bit longer or do we just say, screw it, rip off the bandaid, go fight Charles Olivera, co-main event at Madison Square Garden, number one contender fight. And it wasn't an easy decision, but I needed to make the decision. She finally was just like, hey, baby, like, your brand and who you are and white people love you is you are a guy who takes action. And I think somewhere along the way, you kind of lost yourself a little bit because you're kind of, you're a man of your words, so you want the

fight to happen. So you want to finish it because you're a man of your word. But also, you're dealing with another person who is, you know, it's on his terms as well. If he doesn't show up, it doesn't show up. It's not like golf. If you and me are going to go play golf in a tournament and you tweak your back, you can go ahead and sit out, I can go ahead and do the round and compete with the scorecards. I need a dance partner. Yeah. You know, so she's like, you know, I feel like you've lost yourself a little bit there and forgot that you're the guy who takes action. You're the guy who is constantly coming forward.

You're the guy who constantly moves forward in the face of diversity with complete disregard to your previous failures, to your future, to your future opposition and to your current circumstances. Like, just go ahead and take action. Just go do it if you want to. I'm like, well, I don't really know if I want to. And then we prayed about a little bit more. And I was like, I woke up one morning, call Henry Campbell. I was like, I want Madison Square Garden, Charles Olivero. He's like, all right, done.

And then now here we are. I want to go through some of your career highlights. There have been many. But I want to go through some fun ones here. You kicked Tony Ferguson's face off. Yeah. Have you seen that image where your toe is like in his face and his face is like crumbled up? Yeah, I just saw it last night, actually, because I was with a buddy of mine, Blake,

and we were meeting with a scene. CEO of his company, extracurricular apparel company. And he was like, dude, because he was like, you remember the Tony Ferguson kick, right? And he was like, yeah, I think I remember. Because it made SportsCenter top 10. I think it was number one on SportsCenter. Like, it just went completely viral. And that photo, that image of poor Tony's face where the inertia going up and then the gravity going down just smushed his face into a 170-year-old man. And it was just like burned in everybody's face forever or in everybody's image forever, you know, it was a, you know, fighting, you know, is, it's a, it's a game of millimeters. And it's also, you know, the, the opponent has a vote on what's

happening at all times, right? And it's like, if you're just a standing target, I'm like, I'm going to punch you right in the nose, but you're moving and you're ducking, you're diving and you're, you're, you're attacking, you're, you know, moving backwards. You're moving side to side. Sometimes things just work out really, really well. And I kind of saw, you know, I was kind of getting a beat on it. And I realized Tony was kind of having, hey, had his hands a little bit wide so I knew there was a lane right up the middle. And a lot of times I'd kind of a faint jab, fake to the leg and then throw an uppercut. But I was like, let me just go ahead and try this, this kick. And then just boom, man, like right underneath the jaw. Joe Rogan called it the

greatest front kick of all time. Yeah, it was definitely the most violent, you know, like there's been some really great ones. I mean, Anderson Silva's, Anderson Silva's, Anderson Silva's, uh, Leota Machitas, like there's been some really good front kicks. But this, those were more like flick, you know, like, flicking hit the jog, make the guy go down. Mine was like, Pat McAfee, Indianapolis Colts, I'm gonna punt this ball as far as I possibly can.

And if it goes into the stands, so be it. And unfortunately, it was Tony Ferguson's head. This was, this was that scene from 300. Yeah. This is Sparta.

It's exactly what it. And there was so many, so many cool photos of, like, leading up to it where the foot was like leaving the ground. There was like this time lapse, bam, and then when it hits impact,

and then he just completely, completely crumbled. And then obviously I got over top of him and I was about to land a follow-up shot. And I was like, no, that dude's, he's out. And then luckily the ref was there because he didn't need to take any more damage after that. He was out for a solid couple minutes, which was kind of scary as I was ripping off, I think, six different backflips. A lot of backflips. A lot of backflips. And a lot of people, to be clear, too, there's some people who are obviously Tony Ferguson fans are like, oh, it's disrespectful. You're doing backflips. Well, Tony Ferguson's basically dead on the ground. I'm like, yeah, I guess, but it was my moment to celebrate. And also, I'm not the guy. And this is

kind of an interesting take. Like, if you finish me and beat me, knock me out or whatever, I want you to stay as far away from me as possible. Let me sit in my loss. Let me sit in my moment. Don't come over and give me a pat on the back. Like, go, you'll get them next time, buddy. I'm like, dude, that's the the last thing I want to hear from you right now. Just go. So I'm not the type of guy who's like, I go knock a guy out or choke him out or finish him. And I'm going to go over and help him up and do that stuff. It's kind of like, to me, I think it's a little bit kind of big timing somebody under the guise of sportsmanship, you know, but people have different views of it. I just want to be left alone. You beat me to go do your thing. We'll meet back in the center here at a second when you get your

hand raised, but let me just have my moment right now. So I wasn't going to go over and like start patting Tony on the back or something, you know. Your UFC debut, Dan Hooker. You finish it in two and a half minutes. How many back clips did you rip off there? Just one, which actually, that, That's how I know I'm crazier than I actually think I am. So I knock out Dan Hooker with a right hand to the body. His hands go down, overhand left. He crumbles, finish him. He's number five in the world at this time.

So it was a scary fight for me. It's my UFC debut, all the pressure, all the bright lights, all the hype. Are you as good as you say you are? Yeah. And everyone's like, oh, finally, Chandler's coming over to the UFC. And there were some people were like, yeah, he's never been good. let's see how, you know, let's watch him get smoked. And there's other people who are like, yes, thank God.

Finally, we get to see him against the world's best. And I knock out Dan Hooker, Reth pulls me off, and I just sprint to the cage, which was only a step or two. And I grab the cage with my toes in my feet or my toes in my hands, get to the top, stand up, do a backflip off the top of the cage, which I have never done before in my entire life. Never practiced it. Not like I've been in the gym, like, oh, let me practice my backflip off the cage.

never done it before in my life, never practiced it, never tried it, didn't even plan on doing it. It just happened. My body took over. And I'm like, well, that was pretty freaking dangerous. You almost didn't land it. No, I didn't. Yeah, like, look, well, there was so much momentum. And I also launched myself, you know, like, Justin Gauchy's famous for doing it. He does a, not that his was any better or worse, they're just kind of different. He kind of flings himself up and kind of lands softly. Mine was like, I almost jumped all the way across the cage. I landed in this further than the center of the cage. I like was like 16 feet just launched myself and then luckily kind of landed on my feet and like kind of rolled out of it.

And then, you know, ripped off the promo. And that was, that was my first introduction. And everybody's like, oh, wow. We like this guy. This is good. You know? And then you just, then it was just immediately people were like, okay, we want to see this guy fight again.

He just knocked out Dan Hooker in two and a half minutes, which he, he had just the fight before, went 25 minutes with. Dustin Porrier, almost finished Dustin Porreier, almost got finished by Dustin Porreier, fight of the night. So like, very well-evened fight, and like Dan Hooker didn't even land a punch on me, and I knock them out, rip off a backflip, shirtless, draped in the stars and bars

with the American flag and rip off a promo. Do you watch your fights back? I do, yeah. I mean, and sometimes, like after a win, it's like right away, let's go watch it. This is great. After a loss, it's kind of like, let it marinate a couple days. I've been here before. I've lost. I don't really want to rip off that Band-Aid yet. And it takes me a couple days and I'll go watch it by myself usually.

Maybe with my wife. Definitely not with my kids. My kids have seen me lose in fights, but I don't want to show them that stuff too much because, you know, and it's not ego or narcissism. It's more just like, you don't need to see your dad like get beat up, get beat up or lose a fight. But my son, Hap was at my last fight, which was, he was at the Tony Ferguson fight, which was the greatest knockout in UFC history, possibly, in the triumph of victory. and then he also was at my last fight where I lost. And I'm bleeding and I'm getting stitches. And he's back in the back tent and he kind of like starts crying a little bit because

you're watching your dad, you're a hero, you know. But I think it's, that's why this sport is so beautiful because my son now has gotten to see what I do every day and how I operate and how I train and how I live my life. But then also he's seen the triumph, the triumph of victory. But he's also seen the tragedy of defeat and loss and blood and cuts and stitches. doctor and his dad okay you know so he and maybe there might be people out there like he probably shouldn't you know let your kids see that he's only eight years old you're going to traumatize him but i want my kids and my sons especially to know that you're going to take your lumps you're going to take your bruises

and our scars that we accrue by doing things and by throwing ourselves into the fire the scars tell a story and the scars tell people that you're battle tested but then more importantly the scars remind everybody that you're still here like i'm still here in pursuit, still standing confidently on my own two feet with the scars that you can see, you know, visually. And I think it's just, it's a lesson in life, whether they decide to do combat sports or wrestling or sports in general at all or not, whatever they pursue in life, you're going to get knocked down, you're going to take your lumps, you're going to get scars, but it's how you respond to those scars and those losses that really make you into a man.

Do you think you learn more from a win or from a loss? You definitely gain a ton of momentum from a win. Sure. And you get stopped in your tracks with a loss. But it's always been an interesting question because, of course, I learned things like, man, okay. Now I know, I would actually say like my last two fights. I fought differently. I kind of changed it up a little bit.

I wanted to be a little bit more calculated, which being calculated can kind of take your foot off the gas a little bit. And I think one of my main strengths is I'm like an in-your-face constant. pressure kind of guy. So I look at that and think, okay, well, next training camp, my foot's going to be on the gas more. I'm going to train myself to be a pressure fighter like I have been in the past, which worked well against Dustin Porre, worked well against Justin Gaichie, worked well against Oliver in the first fight, worked well against Ferguson and Hooker. And then the last two were more like, you know, it wasn't myself. And it had nothing to do with, you know, lack of skill. It was more just like lack of game plan. So I think taking that journal a ton about it, watch those fights back,

you're going to see kind of the old school vintage Michael Chandler in the next fight, where it's, I'm going to be in Conner's face. And on the White House lawn, I'm going to separate him from consciousness. In the second fight with Oliver, what are you thinking when you have them on your back? Oh, man. You know, I tell you exactly what I was thinking. And this is great. And it was cool because Triple H was there, Cage side, like Trump's entire cabinet was there. And I'll never forget, my entire life, I was like, you're down on the scorecards. I've lost, I've pretty much lost the fight. And you know that. Yeah. I mean, I knew I knew I had lost the fight. Kind of in the first round, in the first round, I did something to my leg in that first scramble where I actually tore part of my MCL,

my adductor muscle, and a hamstring on the inside of my leg. And so I couldn't, I wanted to, my brain was telling me to go forward and put pressure on my front foot to go forward, but my body wouldn't let it happen. So I kind of felt myself going backwards more, which put him in the driver's seat. So I kind of just, he did a great job of controlling me, did a great job of taking my back. And he was all my back. And if you remember in the first fight, I did the same thing. He backpacked me and I jumped back. And even Joe Rogan, the great Joe Rogan was like, oh, that was a horrible decision. Why would you do that now Oliver is an even better position? But then I do, I do this thing where I'm able to get out of that back position.

I usually get on top. So I was like, I'm going to try to put myself there. But this one was different. This one was more like, I have one goal and one goal only. Every single one of you, 20,000 people who spent your hard-earned money

and all the millions of people out there who spent your hard-earned money to buy this pay-per-view, I'm about to take this dude for a ride. And I actually, like, I looked over at Donald Trump, and he was sitting next to Kid Rock, and I could just kind of like see him. And he, like,

we made eye contact and he like kind of like smirked and smiled a little bit and I was like I'm about to get up right now so I freaking get to my feet get to all four stand up slam him and the entire place goes nuts it was it was the best moment of the entire night really but for sure but the best moment of the fight and I'm like and I look over and I realize there's about 30 seconds left on the clock and I was like why slam him once when you could just slam him again so I like roll back to my my side get all my hands and need to be And this time I look at Hunter Campbell, who's like the number two in charge at the UFC, a guy who I do all my negotiations with, great, great guy. And Hunter's very stoic. But he kind of like smirked a little bit. And he kind of gets this look in his eyes and he shakes his head. He's like, you crazy, you're about to do it again, aren't you? And I like, we kind of like read, I like read what he said.

And I was like, yeah, you're right. I should do it again. Get back up and just. And at this time, the first one was a, the first one was a surprise. Nobody knew I was going to do it. But then when I get to my feet the second time, everybody's on their feet. Madison Square Garden,

20,000 people sold out crowd, not a person sitting down. Every single person is on their feet. As I'm getting back to my feet and, like, you can hear the roar of the crowd getting louder, like, oh, and then boom, and then it exploded. Like Madison Square Garden,

roof almost came off. And it was just, yeah. Before you slam him, you go, F it. Yeah. I did. I did. Yeah, I did.

I'm not proud of that. You know, my kids are going to see that. But, you know, it's one of those deals where, you know, like human nature takes over. It's just like, I'm fighting in a cage. It's, you know, the guy that you see here kind of clean cut, you know, really cussed. But I'm like, eff it, dude. Like, this is, here we are. We're going to just.

And I had one hand, like stumbled. Stumbled to the middle of the octagon. And then just boom, explode again, man. And then at that point, too, it was kind of like, I tapped him a little bit, like, you know, good fight. He has a beautiful moment. He gives you a kiss and mutual respect. Yeah. And it's, he knew what, he knew what he was doing, what his goal was.

I knew what I was doing. I respect the heck out of him. He's a heck of a fighter. I'll always love Charles Oliver for the competitor that he is. But also more than anything, it's, you know, entertainment, right, a guy who's down on the scorecards, but that moment also, too, was a metaphor for life. Like, no matter what the weight is on your back, no matter how down on the scorecards you are, no matter what you're up against,

no matter what the opposition is doing, no matter how bad it looks, no matter how dark it gets, you can always get back to your feet, you know, and you can always get back to your feet and continue to fight on or do something,

try to make something of it. And then also the metaphor, also too, is like, in that moment, you saw one guy getting back to his feet, and then you saw one guy just hanging on for the win. And I don't want to say that to take anything away from Charles Oliver,

but he was just hanging on. At that point, he's like, I'm not going to try to choke him. I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to ride this out. I'm just going to hold on to him and let this guy slam me. So it was kind of just the dichotomy between two completely different spirits going on. And it was just, it was cool, man. Like, it was like a movie.

You know, and Triple H after, you know, text to me, it was like, dude, number one, hell of a promo. Number two, those slams were like one of the coolest sports moments ever. So because I did get the opportunity to get on the microphone after, which was cool. And, you know, I was able to rip off a promo, which you don't usually get to do after a loss. usually it's like, hey, you know, go lick your wounds, but they were like, hey, let's give the microphone to Chandler. It's kind of the great thing about your promos is you can't tell if you've won or lost. Yeah.

If the same intensity. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's, it's been the thing. And what's really funny is I never did that before I came to the UFC. And I think part of it was I knew that I wasn't fighting the best guys in the world. I knew I wasn't in the biggest organization in the world. And maybe that was wrong of me. Maybe I should have made the best of it.

But I was like, man, I get on the microphone and I rip off a promo and try to build this this hype and this brand and build build these things and make people feel something it'd be cool but I know I'm not doing at the highest level when I came to the UFC I was like okay now I can actually step into my full self and there's the full self and the most authentic self and the best version of you is waiting for you on the other side of taking a big risk I was taking a big risk leaving the relative security of Bellator I knew it I had been there for a long time they loved me had a great great relationship not just with my promoter but friends with the CEO of Spike TV, the head of the VP of communications for, like, I was having dinner with,

breaking bread with the executives of Spike TV, because I've always been that guy where I, I'm just drawn to the people who are making the entire thing work, right? So I had this really great thing going in Bellator, so it was a huge risk. I could have signed with the UFC because I wanted to chase this pipe dream of, I got to go test myself, and it could have not worked out at all. I could have came to the UFC, lost a day, And Hooker lost my next fight and the UFC would have very easily been like, hey, dude, it didn't really work out. This is the what have you done for me lately business.

And lately you haven't done anything. You lost your last two fights. Turns out you're not that good, which I would have been okay to live with. At least I took that chance. But everything that you've ever wanted and desired is waiting for you on the other side of your comfort zone and taking a big risk. And I needed to do it for myself, for my family, for my future. Because my wife also said, too, she's like, hey, you need to do this because I'm going to be

married to you for the next 50 years the rest of our life. And I want you to be your full self. Like go take the chance. And if it doesn't work out, we'll figure it out. You know, you can get another job. You can go fight somewhere else. If you want to keep fighting, if you don't want to fight, you got the world at your fingertips. So go just take the chance. And I did. And it worked that well. You've had wildly entertaining fights. Wildly entertaining promos. How badly do you need a win right now? Pretty badly. You know, I think you always want to, the goal is to always win, obviously. Um, fighting Connor is a great fight.

I love that fight. I think you'd be the favorite in that fight. Man, favorite is, is interesting because you never know with the betting odds, man. I,

I, I, I would imagine I would be. And that fight's gonna likely be at 170. I think. Yeah, I hope. I'll fight.

You guys have been talking about it. Yeah. That's what it was the last time, you know, 155, 175, 170, 185, I don't really care. You know, people like,

oh, he'll do anything to fight Connor. I'm like, or I just don't care. I can make 155. I can not cut weight and be at 185, 170. I don't care. I'm an athlete. I show up whatever weight it is. But yeah, no, I mean, I'm excited to kind of get into a training camp, put together a game plan, start really training

with a fight date in mind, an opponent in mind, his different movements and idiosyncrasies and habits and tendencies that I've studied over the last couple of years. I think it's going to be a great fight. It's a fight that the fans want to see. And it's a fight that I think I should be favored in. It's a fight that I'm very confident I'm going to win. The United States Soccer Federation present the U.S. Soccer Podcast. My name is David Goss, and I'm joined by my co-host, Megan Klinemberg. And now we're giving people an inside look at the World Cup. Time's ticking.

I think you can feel the intensity. All the guys are wanting to really take their claimant, and they want to be on that World Cup roster. There's no doubt about it. Hosting the World Cup on the home soil comes with its pressures, but we're just really excited just as the people are. The U.S. Soccer Podcast, presented by Hencock. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

You end every promo with CU at the Top. Yeah. Break that down for us. What does that mean to you? So, CU at the Top came from Zig Ziglar. Rest in peace. He was, to me, the greatest motivational speaker of all time. I love Zig Zigler.

I've always been, I haven't really always been a fan of Zigziger. I was introduced to him by my mentor, Chris Patterson, who actually was mentored by Zig. I read his book called See You at the Top. So I just kind of started using it. you know, it's like kind of became a thing. And now I'll see people on the streets and, you know, yo, Chandler, see you at the top. You know, it's kind of become a thing.

And I think the biggest, I think the biggest thing about the see you at the top mantra isn't like, hey, I'm going to the top, you know, like look at me. I'm at the mountain top. It really is about seeing you there. And I've always, two things. When I got into the sport, number one, I always wanted to change the view of what people thought a mixed martial artist was. I wanted to be different.

And sometimes you're different so people don't like you and that's fine. But I wanted to change the view of what people thought a mixed martial artist was. And number two, I wanted to use what I'm doing to inspire and motivate people to become their best self.

The little guy out there from a small town who was taught to do small things, like there's a million other little Michael Chandler's out there who don't think that God created them for great things. I want to be able to make those young men, especially believe in themselves to accomplish great things.

So if I get to the mountain top and I'm UFC champion, I'm the number one fighter in the world, I'm the biggest sports star on the planet, all the money, all the lights, all the platform. And I get there and I'm at the top by myself, what did I do it for besides just a narcissistic, ego-driven, selfish journey? I want to look to my left and look to my right and see all the people that came with me. Maybe they're a summit below me or two summits below me, but they're heading toward the top with me. And some of them are getting there. And it doesn't have to be sports.

It doesn't have to be money. It doesn't have to be platform. It just has to be the internal, intrinsic feeling that they were created for so much more than they could think or imagine and then just unlocking people's view of what they are able to accomplish. And I think that's where see you at the top comes from. And of course, I get some people like, I'll see you at the bottom or you aren't even close to the top.

And it's like, yeah, dude, I'm doing pretty all right. I'm doing pretty good. And I'm still a work in progress. I'm still in pursuit. So, man, it's been a heck of a journey, and I want to bring as many people with me on the journey as I can. What are some other Zig Ziglar quotes you love? Because he has so many.

I end every episode with a quote. I think about some of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes. You are what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind. Yeah. Right. So just standing guard at the gate of your mind, realizing that what you're thinking about, you know, my favorite book, I have it in this thing, it's in the desk,

as a man thinketh is all about, which it's not Zig Zig Zig Ziglar, that's James Allen, but it's all about kind of the accountability of realizing that your your your thoughts create action your action creates your circumstances in life so he said you're what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind um i love uh you don't have to be great to start we have to start to be great yes you're born to win you know born to win it was one of their things and that and that's just a very simple moniker too it's like you were born to win and i think society and people and people society and people around us will tell us that like,

well, you can't really accomplish that. Don't go try those things. But you were born to win. He also, one of my favorite ones, which I don't know if he credits, I think he said it was Dr. Joyce Brothers, but she said a man or a woman will never be able to consistently perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way that they see themselves. You know, and I use that in my last keynote,

the last two keynotes actually where I just want everybody to think about as we're talking right now that you'll never be able to perform in a manner that is inconsistent with the way that you see yourself. So if you don't see yourself as a champion, if you don't see yourself as a winner, if you don't see yourself as deservative success, you'll find some successes here and there or every now and then, but you'll never be able to consistently perform in that manner. And I think my life has been a blueprint for that from a guy who's self-sabotized, who didn't believe in himself, who came from a small town, who was taught that, hey, don't take too many chances. Don't get too big for your riches people would say to holy cow wait a second the world is my oyster and i'm in a very humble

selfless way believe that i should have all the great things in life i should have all the platform all the money all the success all the notoriety all the things not because i can sit here and toot my own horn and get more followers on social medias but because people can look at how i did things and how i lived my life and I'm like well if he did it I can do it you know and if you kind of flip it on its head and you really think about Ed Milette as a friend and mentor of mine and I listened to him speak a couple weeks ago and he said something that hit home to me and I started tearing up and cry and crying he's just like right now somewhere somebody is waiting for you to reach the level that you're supposed to and become the best version of yourself so you can then impact them

So if you're sitting here playing small and you're sitting here self-sabotizing yourself, you're sitting here living less than with lack and scarcity, you are robbing other people of the blessing that you could be to them. And your failures and your setbacks are the things that actually qualify you to be a light. They don't disqualify you. They qualify you to be a light because you've gone through this setback, because you've gone through this pain, because you've collected these scars, those are the very reasons why you're being put in a position to reach people,

because without those experiences, without those scars, you don't really have a leg to stand on. It's an experience. It's part of the human condition. Yeah, Ed Milet said something that I heard one time that said at the end of your life, picture you meet the version of yourself that you could have been. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a scary, scary thing. And I think anybody who's listening right now to, or you're like, I'm losing motivation. I don't have that drive. I don't like what I've always used not always but probably over the last probably eight to 10 years I always used this vision of me standing in a honest my hands on a sink looking at the mirror in the back of some locker room in an arena somewhere and I just took my gloves off for the last time it's over I just retired I am done and I want to be able to look myself in the mirror and ask myself the question Michael did you do every single thing that you possibly could with the talents that God gave you and I want to be able to answer that question truthfully and without regret. So I use that guy, that moment, that metaphor, that vision to motivate me now.

If I cut corners now, I'm taking the chance of leaving some in the tank. If I'm leaving things in the tank or I'm not disciplined or I'm making the wrong decisions, doing the things that I don't want to do, I'm being lazy, I'm being a multitude of all the different, you know, snares and traps that we fall into every day. When I'm doing that, I'm taking the chance and increasing the likelihood of me getting to the to look at myself in the mirror and live with that regret. Because I think, how you do anything is how you do everything. Exactly.

Right. Yeah. And I think the sport of wrestling, college wrestling, really helped me with that is there, it's very black and white. Like if you do the right things, good things happen. If you do the wrong things, good things don't happen, you know. And I think I've just created that with my life and I've set a standard for myself. And it's like the standard that I set that I'm going to do X, Y, and Z.

I'm going to do things this way. it's not even a choice because it's the decision is already made. It doesn't care about my feelings. It doesn't care about how I feel that day. It doesn't care if I'm sick. Doesn't care if I'm tired. Doesn't care if I'm busy. You just set the standard and you hold the standard.

You keep the standard for your life. I feel like I already know the answer to this. But I feel like you were put on this earth to be a wildly entertaining MMA fighter. Do you ever get nervous before a fight? No, not really, man. And that's no, and that's when you know you're doing what God has called you to do, you know. My first fight ever. I graduated in May of 2009, fought my first fight in August of 2009.

And I was fighting another college wrestler. He was undefeated one and O'N O'O, guy named Kyle Swadley at Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, in front of like 50 people, which obviously it's a smaller venue. Some people were like, well, of course you weren't nervous. But still, you're fighting. I just went from like hand-to-hand combat where you couldn't really, you could kind of paw in a little bit of contact. this guy can punch me in the face. He can kick me in the teeth. He can choke me unconscious. He can break my arm. But I remember walking out of that tunnel the first time and I was just like I was not nervous at all. And I was like it actually was an eerie feeling. I was really thinking to myself,

this is kind of weird. I feel like I should be nervous, but I'm not. And I went out there, finished him in the first round, threw 200 punches on the ground. And I was like, I think I like this thing called NMA. That gave it a try in 2009. I've been trying it ever since. You are so inspired. with the way that you fight and the way that you live your life. And I just want to thank you for this great conversation. Of course. And I'm excited for what's next for you. It's going to be good, man. We got a big, big 2026. I actually, I've got a book coming out. I just wrote a book and we've got a documentary coming out also. So we're going to be. When's it coming out? Well, so there's TBD on the actual dates. Because obviously with with the book and the documentary, both of those will kind of hinge upon

promotion of the fight and when the fight is and training camp and all that stuff too. And I think I just, I've been very fortunate to be in the position that I'm in. And I love the sport of mixed martial arts. I think it translates to life so well. Whether you love fighting, hate fighting, whether you do fighting, don't do fighting, training,

whatever, hand-to-hand combat at all. There's so many lessons and principles that I've learned over the last 25 years of hand-to-hand combat that I want to be able to send off to the next generation and even anybody, especially men who are struggling with aimlessness or trying to find their path

or trying to find that next gear. And then the documentary will be kind of similar part of my story and where I came from and how it all culminates to the White House lawn June of next year. And man, the biggest fight that I could have ever even thought about. It pales, you know, June 29th pales in comparison to what is going to happen at the White House. And if you really think about God's plan and how it all was going to work out, he's like, hey, I got you, buddy. I know you're going to have to go through a little bit of pain, a little bit of turmoil, a little bit of discomfort. but I got a bigger thing in store for you. And when it all works out, it's going to be pretty nuts.

And then maybe WWE after. Yeah, wins, when's WrestleMania? That's in April. Oh, that's right. So we can't do WrestleMania, but when is... Maybe SummerSlam? SummerSlam is in July? August.

August. August 1st and 2nd? I was going to say, I knew there's one in August. Okay. That's in Minneapolis. Minneapolis. Okay. How about that one?

Minneapolis in August. Me versus Logan Paul. Oh, my God. Me versus Logan Paul. Well, now it's out into the world. That's where we'll do it. That's where we'll start it. No, I mean, yeah, it could be awesome.

We'll see. We've got a lot of talks to happen between now and then. Obviously, they know I'm interested. I believe they're interested. So, wow, we'll see where we're at. I'll end this interview with the question I ask everybody because gratitude's such a huge part of my life. I know it is for you as well.

I wake up every day. I say out loud three things I'm grateful for. My wife, Rachel, and I do it before we go to bed every night. So, Michael, what are three things you're grateful for as we sit here right now? It's a great question, man. I think most of all, I'm grateful for my journey that I've had. You know, I know it's kind of an open-ended question, but like, there's been so many times where I thought my journey was ending, so many losses that felt like the end, so many

self-deprecating, self-sabotaging things that needed to happen for me to get to where I am today. I'm thankful for the journey. I'm thankful for my beautiful wife and my children who I fight for. and I think I'm thankful for a healthy, well-enabled body that I have somehow been able to last this long, fighting at a high level, and make a living with my hands. Just like my dad did, although in a different way, he was a carpenter, but he's got these big old cracked, beat-up hands. He was just here.

He hung some things on the wall and helped some things around the house, but he's just a, he's a tradesman. He's big old cracked man hands, sausage meat cleavers. and I've made a living with these hands that I'm blessing my family with and building this awesome life with so I'm thankful for those things I'm thankful for the journey thankful for my beautiful, healthy family

and I'm thankful for my well-enabled, healthy body that I've been able to do this life with a lot for. Michael Chandler. Thanks so much, brother. I appreciate you, man, thank you. I'll see you at the top. Jim Rome takes on sports. Why?

Because I have a job to do. With rapid fire takes. So I don't want to hear from you lava pigs on this notion today. No idea what you're talking about. You're complaining more than you like to breathe air. It's like you get up in the morning only to complain and cry and moan on social media about things that you don't even understand. He's the spitfire of sports smack. Take advantage of it.

Get up in here. The Jim Rome Show podcast. What's your beef? Follow and listen on your favorite platform. You've been warned.