THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Championship Mindset of a UFC Fighter w/ Michael Chandler

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

Somebody’s got to be the best… why not YOU? Michael Chandler is a UFC Top Competitor, and a person you can aspire to be like both in and out of the Octagon. He’s a 3x Bellator Lightweight Champion and is on his way to holding the UFC Lightweight title. He is a rising star, a good friend of mine, and truly one of the greats! When you are locked in a cage staring in the face of an opponent that wants to rip your head off, it becomes just as much of a mental game as it is a physical one. In this episode, Michael shares his secrets to preparing his mind for a WIN, eliminating the fear of failure, embracing failure, and being able to step fully into his purpose and his greatness! No matter where you came from or how much of a slump you might be in, it’s time for you to THINK DIFFERENTLY! Michael went 688 days in between wins before he became an “overnight success.” It was all about his mental ability to overcome imposter syndrome, and embrace his past while FIGHTING for his future… for who he was destined to become! The strategies you’ll learn in this interview will help you to accept your God-given imperfections and break free from the jail of self-doubt, how to create a mental highlight reel, and prepare your mind to win your next BIG FIGHT! This is NOT just a SPORTS interview! It’s a master class on mental preparation, visualization and changing your mindset… I’m not exaggerating when I called a master class! Don’t miss Michael’s next BIG FIGHT. It’s the main event on PPV May 15th against Charles Oliveira.   👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈  → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ▶︎ INSTAGRAM ▶︎ FACEBOOK  ▶︎ LINKEDIN ▶︎ TWITTER ▶︎ WEBSITE

This is the Ed Milach show. Welcome back to the program, everybody. Today's going to be a great one. I have a champion to share with you today. It's a guy I've followed for a long time. He's one of my favorite athletes in the world, I've stolen him off camera. We have a lot of mutual friends,

he and I have been talking for a long time. He's one of my favorite men, leaders in the world. And not only was he a three-time ballatory lightweight champion, what I like to watch is just, he just pulverized Dan Hooker in a recent UFC event.

And he's a rising star in the UFC, probably going to get a chance to fight for the title soon, but I love his mental and life approach. So Michael Chandler, welcome to Max out. Thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it. It is a blessing to be here and I might like to be after. Long time coming. So I'm so glad the timing's good. So many people are familiar with you.

They have been for a long time, but after that last quick knockout and your speech afterwards, by the way, which is epic, more and more people you're on their radar right now. But I want to go to, I want to get into your mental game, because I think that's the separator for you, the former Michael Chandler compared to the new version. It's always been this incredible athlete, always been the hardest worker in the room, always comes in great shape, but your mental games change. So let's just talk about that a little bit. Am I right about that? Has there been a shift in your mental approach to your life and fighting? Yeah, there has. I mean, even, you know, fighting, but also just even from where I started as a small guy from a small town and then becoming a walk on at the University of Missouri Division 1 wrestler. walk on at the University of Missouri Division I wrestler fell short of my goals there and there was numerous reasons why I fell short of my goals and I promised myself I would never make those same mistakes never fall into those same

familiar pitfalls as soon as I came into mixed martial arts and then did a great job of that for a while fell back into those same pitfalls and then kind of dusted myself back up and became champion numerous times. And then, you know, now arguably, you know, in the best place of my career, now 12 years in and the sky is the limit. So what are those pitfalls? There's patterns, right? You and I have talked about this before. Human beings have these patterns that they fall into. And just being aware of them, they lose a lot of their power over you in the first

place. But for you, what were some of those patterns or pitfalls that seemed to get you as you would get closer to the big time? You know, I think the biggest thing for me was that small guy from the small town who was taught to do small things, you know, even sitting here talking to you. I joke with people, I want to be, when I grow up, I want to be at my left, right? You know, you got everything, all corners covered, successful as a man, successful, spiritually successful in business. But when I talk, and I heard you on the bigger pockets

podcast, I believe you said you closed it on $900 million of real estate, saying things like that. That's what I want to do. That's what I want to be. But there's still that small voice and size of the excitement that says, Michael, you can't do that. You're not. You can't be like Ed Mylett. You can't be a speaker like Zig Ziglar. You can't be a fighter like Conner. You can't be a fighter like Anderson Silver. There's that small guy from that small

town inside my brain that still tugs at me from time to time. And I did a lot of work of my mental coach, Jim Hensel. And he talked about some dragons you slay and you slay them, they're dead, you put them off of the head, you never see them again, but then some dragons you just get you just get good at pinning them into a corner, right? And for me I kind of think about that small guy from that small town. I'm probably never ever going to be able to slay him, but I have gotten really, really good at duct tape him to the basement of my mind with a big ol' roller duct tape and over his mouth, right?

And truthfully, he rares his head from time to time, and I think, and I said it in my post-flight speech, which you alluded to, that every road had led me to that UFC debut, to that biggest opportunity. At the greatest opportunity of my life was I going to be able to go out there and have the best performance of my life. And I think I did. And there's no saying that small back in that small town isn't going to keep on rearing his head here and there. But I've learned to realize that I accept him.

I realize that I love him because I realize to that I love him because he and a lot of ways has cut me down and maybe fall short and maybe hunger, maybe more excited about all the hard work and obstacles I have ahead of me. So I think it's just that that humble beginnings, my mom was a secretary, my dad was a union carpenter, silly union carpenter. So when I talk about touching every corner of the globe, speaking on big stages, making multiple, multiple, multiple millions of dollars, so that my family can live a better life

than I did growing up. Something about it scares me. A lot of it feels foreign to me. And eventually I might turn that corner, but it's still one of those things that keeps me hungry today. I knew this was gonna be one of my favorite shows, but I didn't know so early. So everyone right now, this is going to be good. It's already, we stopped right now. Michael, when you were talking,

bro, I'm blown away by you. I'm just going to tell you, the amount of talent you have to communicate the way you think. I don't like saying when I have brilliant people on my show, this isn't just an athlete, it's if athletes aren't amazing in other ways, but I was going to say to you as you were talking, I have that guy too. I have that voice that person too. I just want to tell you this and the audience. He's there for me. He shows up at strange times too. And what I was going to tell you is he has never gone away, but I have kept him at bay most of the time. And I know what he looks like and he sounds like when he shows up and I go, there you are, you little. And for me, it's the same thing. Union family growing up.

My grandfather was in the Union, a freshman's union in Boston, just kind of a simple upbringing, which has really been to my advantage and years because it's given me humility, maybe in some situations where I might not have had it. But I know exactly what you're talking about. And I just appreciate you sharing that because especially in fighting, it's just all bravado. Sometimes it's all that person you take on. I just think someone like you at the end of your career will have served and helped people find faith, confidence, family life in a way that

most athletes never will because of the, I really believe you have an anointing when I watch you. When you won, bro, that last fight, I had an unusual accident, I'm a lot of fighters that are friends of mine. And I'm not going to say this, there's something about me like I screamed when you won. That's not normal for me. And my wife's like, you really love him. I said, it's not just I love him.

I actually think this dude's a difference maker beyond sports. And I just want to tell you that, you need to keep winning. Now, speaking of winning, this is what I want everybody to get. I want to know what you did. You haven't always won. This is a guy who went with three losses in a row, 688 days of your life without a win. I want everybody to think about that. You maybe listen to this show today and you're in the loss phase. You're in the down on the canvas phase. You know, coronavirus has hurt your business. You're going through a divorce, a bankruptcy, businesses where it is.

You as a professional athlete, guys, six hundred and eighty eight days of that will win three consecutive losses. What did you do to turn that around mentally? There's got to be some specific thing you started to do, brother, that you weren't doing during that phase. What was it? Yeah, you know, and I made a couple mistakes that led into that. And then even a couple mistakes during that six hundred eighty a day. And it was, it

was the hardest, definitely the hardest time of my life. And I think I just sell back into it. I think, so what happened with me, quick overview of my career, I came out, shout out of the cannon, 12 and O lost beat one. My first well, if I finished most of them in the first period or in the first round. It became a top three guy in the world. The media is talking, is this the next big guy?

We want to see him. He's in Bellas or we want to see him fight UFC champion. We want to see him in the UFC. So everybody had all these high hopes for me. And once again, it felt foreign because that small voice inside my mind kept getting louder and louder, Michael, you're not supposed to be here. You're not supposed to be here. You're not supposed to win this much.

You aren't the champion that everybody says you are, right? Even though in my heart of heart, being a God-faring man, knowing that God pulled me into this sport and pushed me in the direction of mixed martial arts to be put on a platform not just to be good but to be great not just to be great but to be impactful to be put on a platform where people say man that guy right there deep in the fourth round deep in the fifth round when he's huffing his puff he's huffing and puffing he's bleeding he's barely picking himself back up to make his way back to the stool and then he comes out in the fifth round and then wins the fight in the fifth round that guy right there because he was able to pick himself back up to make his way back to the stool. And then he comes out and fifth round and then wins the fight and fifth round. That guy right there

because he was able to pick himself back up. I can too in my business, in my relationships, in my in my walk. So I just I just truly believe that God had me in this sport for a reason, but there still was those times where you take it take it for granted. You take your mindset for granted. You think, okay, athletics or my athletic abilities or the hard work will get me there. And while it will, it's probably one of the most important aspects of it. Take an extreme ownership of what's going on in between your ears, your what you are and where you are because of what has gone into your mind and what continually goes into

your mind and what you continually speak about and talk about inside your mind. And I just, I took it for granted and I didn't take ownership of what was going on inside my mind. So I lost my first fight. And I made a couple of mistakes. The first mistake was, you know, I was up for fight of the year. With Eddie Alvarez, they wanted to invite me out to the, to the, the world in the May awards. And I said, no, I don't want to go.

I didn't take any interviews. I wanted the hide. I wanted the hide from my failure. So that was the first mistake. I made the second mistake I made because I had skill amnesia. I lost that fight all the sudden I just forgot how good I was. I forgot how powerful I was, how strong I was, how athletic I was, not to mention how gifted I was By God to be put into this sport. And then the third thing I did was I just I found I found comfort in that jail cell of the Self-Pity, you know, I'd make jokes like, well, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose three in a row.

I would make jokes out of my losses. And I think the worst thing we can do, and of course, it's a defense mechanism, we all do it. We make fun of ourselves, or we down cut ourselves, or we make fun of our own shortcomings, because I'd rather make fun of myself than actually accept the fact that this is a season right now, and I'm going to get better. As you know, in life and business relationships, walk everything is, it's ebbs and flows, it speaks in valleys, and it's ups and downs. And I just took extreme ownership realizing that I could sit here on this computer right now looking at and speaking to a man that I admire, a man that I want to be like, and my leg, the great ed my leg can tell me,

hey Michael, you're this and you're that, and you're going to be great, but if I don't truly believe it, I'm never going to get there. And of course, I appreciate people like you or the next 5, 10 people that may save these things, but we have to realize that what's going on inside of our minds are the greatest impression

we can make is on ourselves. The greatest person that we can build up is ourselves. The greatest person that we can speak into is ourselves. We spend all this time talking to other people and building other people up, and we just act like we don't deserve those things. I did that for a really long time, and then all of a sudden I just realized, man, somebody's got to be the best. Why shouldn't it be me? You know, if I have all these things available to be able to go out and do great things and make an impact in people's lives,

I really am, you know, giving God, and all my almighty God, the children to stick by me, not believing in myself, so I can go out there and accomplish great things. Whoa, my gosh, this is an epic show. Oh my gosh, I want a couple of things on unpack'm packing. I'm going to go right back to you. So first thing, I love what you said about right at the end there, about when you're not, when you don't do everything you possibly can to reach a platform and the influence of other people,

you're short-changing God. And that is the ultimate leverage. Most people of faith could possibly get on themselves. So I love getting leverage on myself. I don't want to let my family down. I don't want my friends down. Those are huge things. But I really don't want to let God down. And neither do any of you listening to this. Second thing is that even at the highest levels guys in life, all of us, myself, Michael, we struggle with self-confidence. It's a battle all of the time. And third, there are things you can do to alleviate that pain you're putting yourself through. there are things you can do to alleviate that pain you're putting yourself through. I teach something called like a highlight reel or an emotional flood. I've had David Nerson who talks about that in his book. I think you let's get granular for a minute.

Do you do that? And if you do, what's your version of that look like? And how do you do it? I do. Yeah. I actually read the first time I ever read about a mental highlight reel was Gary Maxe book called Mind Jim. Yeah, I mean it was in college, a long time ago, and for me, my mental highlight reel, what's great about my mental highlight reel is half of it has nothing to do with fighting. Half of it may be business, half of it may be, a lot of it is wrestling, college wrestling,

you know, beating Kyler Sanderson on senior night by eight points when I needed to beat him to get that higher ranking to be able to get a great seed at NCAA, at the NCAA tournament, right? And the other thing that's the name that a lot of people may not even know because it was college wrestling, but for me at that moment of my life,

when I put on that black and gold singlet and I put on that head year, it was time to go in that moment, at that greatest moment of my life. When I put on that black and gold singlet and I put on that head year, it was time to go in that moment, at that greatest moment of opportunity, I needed to be enough. And not that I just, not only that I need to be enough, but I needed to be great that night. And I was great.

While that performance itself isn't gonna win me world titles, it isn't gonna make me millions of dollars. That performance for me is on my mental highlight, you know, because I can close my eyes and I can remember what that term center or Rita smelled like, what it looked like, how big the crowd was, what was at stake, all of these minute details, so that when I make that walk to the UFC Octagon, which I had never done before, by the way, on the biggest stage that I ever could have asked for, almost two million paper view buys, co-many event of a Conor McGregor paper view.

I had been there before. And I just remember the greatest thing about that walkout was that I had visualized it so many times over the last decade, by the way, because even though I was fighting in Bellator, I was never training to fight these guys in Bellator. I was training to fight the number one guy in the world, whether it was Benson Henderson,

whether it was Rafael dos Andos Anthony Pettis, Ben Eddie Alvarez, Conor McGregor could be, all of these guys that have been UFC champions over the last decade, who I was never going to fight in that moment because I was signed with Bellatour, but I was training to fight them. I wasn't just training to beat the guy in front of the,

I was training to be the number one guy in the world. So now I get the opportunity to step in the octagon and it was as it was as if God pulled this this weight off of me That had been there for a very long time because now he finally said son through your persistence Through your patience and through your belief in your faith now You can finally go pee at your best and I feel like when I stepped in the cage that night, I could have stepped in there with King Kong, and I was going to get that win in the first round. And it was because of the visualization and the winning through the patience and the perseverance of the last 12 years that just gave me the best opportunity in my life.

And, man, I just feel like, you know, without sounding too overconfident, man, I just truly believe that I'm going to win that UFC gold in the next 12 months because I believe I have already been there. I do too. There's so much there. I don't even know where to go. I mean, the first part, I think, is having been there, your mind moves towards what you're most familiar with on a very regular basis.

So that part of it is just gigantic. But the other part of it, I want to go back just a second to the visualization piece. So you said something really important there about the specificity of it. So a lot of people think that they visualize. So guys, what a highlight really is, is just highlights of your life. Good things that made you feel good. Victory's, magic moments, ecstasy, passion, joy, whatever it might be, an A you've got on a spelling test. It doesn't matter. I mean, the important part is how regularly you do it and the specificity, the effect that you're breaking down what it smells and tastes like, even for me, to be honest with you,

really listening to you, that's something I need to add to my game. Mine is very, I'm a very visual person, so my visualization, so to speak, are hyper visual. But the more senses you could include in there. So I want to just speak are hyper visual. But the more senses you could include in there. So I want to just ask you, do you do this in a room closed, you do it when you're walking, do you do it sort of unconsciously when you're driving in the car, do you set aside time to do it? In your case, because I want everybody here to get the gift of, you should all be playing a highlight

reel, then I'll give you one more thing to add afterwards. How do you actually do it? Where? How? Yeah, you know, I think it's sometimes different. I mean, in my life, it's been a lot of it is me pulling myself away sometimes outside of training camp when I'm not training for a fight. Obviously, I still do my visualization, but at some point, at some point for me, I can't be like a robot always on 100%. So I have ebbs and flows where when I'm in training camp

or I'm heading into a 16 week block before I head into a fight, that's when I really start ramping it up. And then right now I've had a couple weeks off after my fight where the first couple weeks, I just lived like a normal person. Yeah, I wanted to take my wife on dates because I hadn't seen her,

or had been able to date her a while, take my son to the park because I would've been away from him training. So my life is very much as in flow than in the outs of fully in or fully out. It's either in the morning, it's when I'm on my way to practice, when I'm driving, we've got 20, 30 minutes to think about how me becoming the best version of myself, because when I show up and I close that corridor and I walk into that gym, I want to be the best version of myself for

my teammates, for my training partners, for my coaches, and for myself to get the most out of that session. It ends in a flow that it changes each training camp, but just making sure you set aside that time. It could, even if it's only two minutes, five minutes, 10 minutes. So, again, a million things doing pack there. One thing I want to say to everybody too,

my highlight reel is really interesting, like before I speak or something, I say, do you picture all of your great speeches or, you know, crowds, yes, but one little thing that happens, guys, is to make sound totally random to you. Because some of you listen, go, I don't have tons of achievements, maybe. One of the things that comes up most often in my mental highlight reel when I do it, is there was a moment when Bella was little and we went outside of the house we had and it was a windy day and I had her in my right arm, my little girl. I think she's probably about two and we were just taking a walk me and my daughter outside it was quiet nobody was there.

I don't know if you ever just feel that perfect breeze on your face. You're like thank you God. Perfect breeze and her little face bumped up on my face or a little cheek bumped up on my cheek and she kissed me with those beautiful little two-year-old lips. I love you daddy and that was it. But it was such an amazing simple moment in my life. It's in my highlight reel. I've gone there millions probably of times now and it gives me comfort before I speak. It puts things in perspective and so this guy is so powerful. The other thing you can do, everyone, is want to make sure, and Michael, for you too,

is like, when I do my mental highlight reel, there's a merge where I then merge into the future. So I have my previous highlight reel, and it merges suddenly into that next thing I want, that next thing I'm going to do. And my subconscious mind thinks it's one highlight reel that's ever already happened, so that when you do step into that speech, that sales meeting, that octagon,

your subconscious mind has been there thousands of times and it's already a victory you've programmed in because it's linked to previous ones. So use your highlight real that way. Okay, question. You said something. There's so much depth to you earlier. You said, I'm not training against the dude necessarily that I'm fighting next. I'm even training against the dude that I spar with. I think so many people that want to be high achievers, compare themselves to the person in the cubicle next to them or

in their current office, you know, or in the local area as opposed to the standard, the best possible standard. So could you just speak to that a minute about training to a standard compared to just the opponent or just the sparring partner or just what's in the gym that day? Because that holds us back as well, true? True, yeah, and I think it's, I mean, for me, people ask, they're always asking me about my opponent, my opponent. He's this tall, he's got these attributes, he's got these accolades. Without sounding cocky, like I'm not like I'm looking past the opponent.

Truthfully, I can tell you this with a hundred percent certainty that I don't need to be, I don't need to train to beat that opponent. I just need to be the best version of myself that night inside the Octagop. I need to be the Michael Chandler with zero-handed hindrances, zero second-guessing, zero fears, and only faith and excitement about becoming my best self. If I can get done with that fight, get my hand raised, and have zero regrets about my performance knowing that I performed at the highest level that I possibly could that night, then there's not a man on this planet that can beat me and I truly believe that.

So, and so my prayer before the fight isn't God give me the victory or God let my opponent stumble. My prayer is God just let me perform like I trained, let me perform in a manner that is consistent with the way that you see me, God, and that is consistent with my gifts and my abilities that you've blessed me with. Because like I said, I truly believe that in that moment, if I'm inside that octagon, and that cage door closes, if I perform at the best, at my best,

I'm not going to lose. And this isn't like, and this isn't kind of the hurrah, well, you gave it your best, so you really didn't lose, even if you didn't lose. This is, like I said, well, if you gave it your best, you didn't lose't lose, even if you didn't lose. This is, like they say, well, if you gave it your best, you didn't lose. That's true in a lot of senses, but also I'm more just saying that if I can go out there

and get in that flow state, there's nobody that can beat me, and I truly believe that. So how do you make sure that you perform that way? Well, you can't ever make sure with 100% certainty, we're gonna have bad days, we're gonna have off nights, we're gonna have bad performances, no matter what. But number one, never being afraid of having a bad performance. Number two, being okay with the uncertainty that's about to ensue.

I mean, you can't really think of a career more volatile than mixed martial arts. Being inside of a cage, locked inside of a cage, being tied on to a tornado, you have to be okay with the uncertainty that's about to happen. And for me, I always say, you know, when lose or draw, I'm going to be okay because my God still loves me, my family still loves me and I still love me. And the hardest thing was I always knew my God loved me, I always knew my family loved me, but that hardest part was, and I still love me. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but you have to be okay with the uncertainty that's about to happen.

And I talk about every area of life and we'll do embrace uncertainty and run towards it. On the other side of uncertainties, everything you want, best relationship you've ever had, there's no certainty to it, right? There's no certainty of that at all. Any great victory, anything you've ever done, you have to go through the uncertainty barrier. Everyone say, you're comfort zone, forget all that comfort zone. You got to go through complete uncertainty. You're the other thing too, for me, I don't know if you relate to this or I'm just curious, that I love me, third one's my issue too. And I've gotten a lot better that over the years. And one of the reasons I've known me overly hokie here, I'm with one of the toughest men in the world, but one of the reasons that I would not give myself love or affirmation or permission to like

myself even if I'm being completely candid like actually like myself. So so everybody knows is to me, I had to be perfect. And if I wasn't perfect, I didn't I wasn't worthy of really liking or loving myself. And perfect is a cop outstanding. Perfect is impossible. But I've kind of heard you talk about this a little bit too. This notion of the perfect fight or the perfect sparring session or the perfect husband, right, the perfect man of faith. Well, you're gonna miss that one every time.

So if that's your standard, you have wired yourself for misery and then it stumbles into, at least for me, kind of the cycle of lack of confidence because I'm not hitting the promise I made myself which was perfection, because self-confidence is keeping the promises you make to yourself. So I'm just curious how that plays with you.

100% and that's, I think especially whenever you, and not to get overly spiritual about it, but when you truly believe that God, that Rick Warren's purpose driven life, that's what everybody wants, right? How do I find my purpose? Whenever you feel like you've found your purpose, and I truly believe that mixed martial arts

being put on a platform through mixed martial arts is my purpose. So I found my purpose. So it's God ordained. So if it's God ordained, then okay, I gotta be perfect, right? Because this is the gift that I'm trying to get God and God deserves. We all know God deserves a perfect gift.

When really, he's looking down on us saying, you're all flawed individuals. I made you perfect in the image of myself, but you are made perfect through the sacrifice that Jesus made on the cross, right? So we are striving for perfection. And that's really truthfully, if I'm being honest, why my first loss happened. So I go out and yes, I win. striving for perfection and that's really truthfully if I'm being honest why my first loss happened so I go out and yes I win I win my I beat Eddie Alvarez I become the number three guy in the entire world Everybody's saying Michael Chandler's the next big thing. So immediately. Okay. I'm the number three guy in the world

Everybody wants me to go when the UFC title when I'm doing my Bellos or contract media is talking about me award after award You know this guy's the next big thing. So what do I say? Am I human brain? Okay, now I got to be perfect, right? Before I was just trying to go, before I was just shooting off the cuff, I was working hard, I was doing things right, I was living living the champion lifestyle, but now that I am the champion, now I got to be perfect. So what did I do? Instead of taking my training to the next level, it went down in the dumps because just as you said, every sparring session was another opportunity to be imperfect. You know, I could win four minutes and 58 seconds of a round, but it was that two seconds that I lost, that told me in my mind, I lost that round. I could have hit a guy a thousand times with the

best combinations in the world, but I got popped once with a jab and immediately my mind said, Michael, you're not perfect yet. You know lift 1,000 pounds, but, well, Michael, you're not perfect because that guy over there can lift 1,000 and two pounds. So I started living in this jail cell inside my brain of perfect and it was impossibly perfect. And it wasn't until my mentor, Chris Patterson, talked about instead of trying to be perfect,

why don't you just focus on success? So because success can be gained 1%, 1%, 1% every single day, and over a long career, I can joke about it now, but it took me 12 years to become an overnight success. Now all of a sudden, I'm Michael Chandler, UFC lightweight number four in the world, probably gonna win the UFC title here

in the next calendar year, but it took me 12 years to become this success named Michael Chandler, right? So I just needed to start, just not putting so much pressure on myself to be perfect and just put the pressure on myself and the friendly pressure on myself to be above board, to be excellent, but not be perfect.

There's a lot of different things that we can strive for that are just below perfect that allow you just enough grace, just enough, just enough leeway to still love yourself through your trials, through your bad days, because let's be honest, man, it doesn't matter, you speak to a lot of high performers, millionaires, billionaires, the people at the highest level, they have their bad days, they have their ups and they have their downs and it's in those downs, it's in those bad days

where they can continue to motivate, continue to see through the month, see through the muck towards a brighter future knowing that the sun really, the sun did go down today but it will rise again tomorrow and our best day to be tomorrow even if we had a bad day today. This is one of these shows, brother. I will listen to back several times. This is one of these is really true. It's when I started to really work with, you know, whatever one would call, you know,

higher elite performers or whatever it was. This is many, many years ago. I come home and think to myself, man, these are very human beings. You know, like, I was struck by their humanity. I was struck by their frailties. I was struck by their, some of their weaknesses and it actually gave me hope.

I think that's what you're doing right now. And we've all heard this thing like comparison is this is deadly game to play. Compare with another person. Compare the worst comparison is to a perfection because that's a standard you're gonna miss every single time. You've literally wired yourself for pain.

I'm as curious about fighting in general. By the way, I love Chris Patterson. That's one of the make sure I stick that in there. In fact, that's how you and I met. Let me ask you this question. I'm just curious about fighting in general. By the way, I love Chris Patterson. I just want to make sure I stick that in there. In fact, that's how you and I met. Let me ask you this question. I'm just curious. Is there fear before a fight for you? In other words, 10 minutes out, you're going to go in there.

This is the thing about fighting that I think people just forget. Because it almost looks like a video game when you're watching it on TV for guys, right? I've had the pleasure of being in the cage a little bit myself. And so I know what it's like, not like you do, but there's another man in there. You can't hide. They close the door, Michelle Waters, and said on the show, you know, and there's you and another man. It's the ultimate form of combat. It's the ultimate form of you dealing with you, ironically, as you said, do you have fear in those moments

or is there no fear because of confidence, because of faith, because of preparation, or what do you do with the fear if you do have it? You know, I actually, there is no fear of the physical, you know, could I get injured, of course, could I break a bone, could I, you know, even worse, could I end up, could tonight be the night that my career just ends, career in the I, you know, even worse? Could I end up, could tonight be the night that my career just ends, career in the injury? Of course, those things could happen. But once again, as I was alluding to earlier,

if you're afraid of that uncertainty that's about to happen, if you're afraid of that physical aspect of the fight, it's gonna be tough because you're not gonna be fighting in that flow state. You're not gonna be fighting at your top level. Me standing across a wrestling mat, or standing across a cage from another man. My size doesn't scare me.

The biggest fears that I have are going out there and performing at a sub-par level. And not just sub-par, but a really bad level. We've all had those moments where we get back in your car after a meeting or for me, go back to the locker room after a fight and you just take a deep breath and take a step back and say, what just happened? That was such a bad performance. I've had those and those are the worst feeling in the entire world. Because for a mixed martial artist, we only get two, maybe three opportunities a year to showcase our skills in

in a cage in front of millions of people. So there's so much riding on that one performance. But I've gotten to the point where I want to want to get going back to no matter what when loser, when loser draw my God still loves you, my family still loves me, I still love me. And because I've gotten to that point, knowing that once again, leaning on the fact that I'm not going to be perfect, just trying to be successful.

If I would have hung my hat on a couple of losses that I had in my past, I never would have got here to become the overnight success who is Michael Chandler in the UFC, right? It took a long time for me to give here, but I'm a battle hard and veteran. I was galvanized by the road that I took. I was a new name to a lot of people when I made my UFC debut back in January at UFC 257, but I was not a new name to the true MMA fans. I was not a new mixed martial artist, a new professional fighter. For me, all roads had led to me being backstage at that UFC 257, but it's almost a weird parallel because before I felt like I

always had something to lose when I was fighting a belt or I was fighting a lot of guys who I was supposed to be in the first round. There was almost there was almost no way to win or it be a positive outcome unless I went out there and finished somebody in the first round and you're talking about fighting world class. They about fighting world class athletes. They still trained every single day. They're still across the cage where you want to rip your head off just like you want to be the same. But I was always fighting guys who, for the most part,

were ranked below me. And I had to go out there and have a dominant performance. So I could go out there and if I beat someone in the second round, people would always say, well, you should have even in the first round. You're a bike or a challenge, you're supposed to be that much better than then. Whereas this was also a beautiful thing at UFC 257.

I was fighting Dan Hooker, the number five, number six guy in the world. I had nothing to lose. So it was a, that was a beautiful feeling having nothing to lose because I would venture to say that the guy, the underdog, is so in such more of an advantageous situation because they have nothing to lose compared to the guy who are on top who have everything to lose every single time he steps into an arena. And I got to that point, UFC 257, and luckily for me I'm going to be an underdog, the next fight, probably an underdog, the next fight.

So you're going to see the best version of myself for sure the next couple fight. I was going to say to you, I want you to remind yourself of that no matter what situation you're in because you're exactly right. In every situation It's the illusion of loss that causes us to underperform So if you can always not give yourself this bogus illusion of loss even if you're the world champion and anything you do Even if you're the best what I'm on a speaking ticket and there's 10 other speakers But everyone may be assumes in that case potentially I should dominate that stage when I speak

I don't let myself think that there's an illusion of loss coming if someone if I don't live up to my game because that's when I slip. I've that idea that subpar fight. I just had a subpar engagement recently. But for me every time I've had one of those what just happened moments, if I'm really self reflective and it's really self reflection, there was something in my preparation that I could have done better. It's always back to me. Like you said earlier, it's really self reflection. There was something in my preparation that I could have done better. It's always back to me, like you said earlier, it's not my opponent, especially in business, it's always preparation. How much of your conf, and when in this particular situation, there were a couple things where I said to myself literally, what just happened? Now joke,

and by the time I got on the plane to come home, I'm like, I know exactly what happened. I'm B. S.ing myself. Here's what happened. I took a little bit for granted this one area that's my big strength. I didn't need to work on that Preparing for this turns out I did, right? And so is that for you usually the answer to what just happened and how much of your confidence is linked to preparation? how much of your confidence is linked to preparation? Being the small guy from the small towns who had to always fight to scrap and claw his way to being seen by the coaches or being seen by the team, I had to be the hardest worker in the room. I talk about the walk on mentality.

I walked onto University of Missouri, there were 16 guys in my class. Only two of us ended up becoming all Americans. And one of them was going to become an all-American. His name was Raymond Jordan. He was a state champion from New Bernoulli, Carolina. He was my roommate. He was destined for big things.

It's full-ride scholarship guy. But I was the walk on guy. I was the guy who the coaches didn't look at for a whole year. Didn't say a word to for a whole year. So me being the walk on guy. I was the guy who the coaches didn't look at for a whole year. Didn't say a word to for a whole year. So, you know, me being the naive young guy, I had to outwork everybody. I was the first one at practice. I was the last one to leave. I was putting in the extra reps.

And although that might sound a little bit, I guess, maybe insecure to a lot of, maybe people listening right now, you still have to have that walk on mentality. That mentality that says, even though I've gotten to where I am now, even though there's a couple zeros in my bank account, even though I got this name, even though I have this account, even though I have this level of success,

I have this level of platform, you still have to be working every single day like you're a walk on. So for me, my preparation is the most important part. I know for a fact that if I step inside the cage and there is doubts about my preparation, I'm never ever going to perform at the highest level. Now I might win the fight still. I might win the contest, so to speak, but there still will be that some self-reflecting of, you got

kind of lucky because you slack in this area, you slack in that area. And that's, I think, what a lot of high achievers do. They hold themselves to a higher standard, not the perfection standard. That's where you fall into that valley of trying to be too perfect, but that level of excellence, am I excellent in all these areas that I need to be excellent? And if that answer is no, then chances are, you're gonna be in a spot that you're leaving yourself open to having failures and having loss.

I just think it's amazing that when you walk into an octagon, you walk into the cage, by the way, I'm gonna take this from you, myself. God still loves me, my family still loves me, I still love me. Everybody listen By the way, I'm going to take this from you myself. God still loves me. My family still loves me. I still love me. Everybody listen to the show. Should be writing that down or watching the show. And that would be a mantra you give yourself the gift of on a very regular basis. What a beautiful reminder as you're going into combat. It's just amazing. That's what you're saying to yourself. Okay, physical. When I look at you and I, you know, I'm around a lot of athletes, I see a superior

physical specimen. And even as you've gotten older, I look at you six, seven years ago, I look at a dude now. This is a superior physical specimen. And I, for a lot of myself confidence, just comes from my physicality. I'm not the same as you obviously, but I think self confidence can come from moving your body. It's one of the first places everybody listening or watching us can transform their self confidence because it's something you can control. You can't control a sales call or a close or the amount of money you've got or even how someone's treating you in a relationship. Is there something specific you've done the last two or three years? Is it heavy or lifting? Is it incorporating more weights? Is it, like in Brady's case,

it's all this plyometric stuff he's doing to be more pliable? What is it for you that's made you, I mean, to me, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you were physically better before, you look physically better to me now. Am I right about that and what's the difference? I think you are right about that.

I think, I think when I got into the sport, I was already gonna be more athletic or stronger physically than a lot of people because of my wrestling background. Division one wrestling in my opinion is the hardest, most physically demanding sport in the entire world. So when I was going to come from division one wrestling into the sport of mixed martial arts,

for these guys that just been training mixed martial arts, I knew for sure I was gonna be faster than them, stronger than them. I wasn't gonna have great strike and it wasn't gonna have great submissions or submissions defense necessarily, but I was gonna be a good athlete coming from wrestling. Since then, I've always trained to become

the best athlete I can possibly be. And it was actually interesting that you say that because there was a young football player from MCSU here in Nashville. I was training with my trainer and he asked my training. He said, hey, Jay, hold. If you've never fought before, how do you train a fighter? And I love that I heard it because I wanted to hear his response.

And his response was, well, we're just training to become a better athlete because I say, if I can be the better athlete in the cage that night, it might not win me the fight for sure But it will put me head and shoulders above my opponent when it comes to speed, quickness, changing angles, closing the distance, Strength picking a guy up, putting them down and cardio. The only one who is undefeated is father time, you know So eventually there will come a time when that clock ticks for the last time and okay It's time for me to be done fighting. I just don't have it anymore. So the more I can turn back the hands of time by doing explosives, more plyometric movements, the better and taking care of my body.

You know, it'd be crazy. I've been training out for 12 years and probably only about the last five or six years have I been doing body work every single week. I get a body work by a massage therapist. It'll be a highly knowledgeable, physio body worker who understands the body. And I live in the back pain for a really long time and I discovered a product called the so-right, realized my so-as, my so-as muscle from running,

jumping, kicking, doing all these things was hindering me physically. And also, I just woke up and pain every single day. So I have a low back pain at all times. So I started lengthening my so as... Is it about a call, Michael? So right. Okay.

PSO-R-I-T-E. I'll send you a few of them. Because I believe... You've heard David Dawgons talk about it. I actually spoke about it on the Joe Logan podcast because everybody, you speak to anybody. What's the one thing that hurts everybody? They're back always hurts.

And I think right now I'm sitting at a desk right now in this chair and my so-as is being crunched down and God didn't design our bodies to sit for the crazy amount of hours that we do. Or if you're sitting in beautiful Southern California traffic, you're sitting in your car. It doesn't matter how nice your car is and how beautiful

the weather is on the seat. You're still sitting down in a non optimal position. I think when it's affordable, people need to investigate more of this bodywork stuff. I've neglected

that all my life. I've done pretty good with nutrition. I've trained really hard. I've not done enough body work and I know that there's a dollar amount, although I have sponsors on my show with little different gadgets and

different things that do help you with that. I'm not plugging the sponsor. I'm just telling you guys the Theragon is something that's really made a difference for me and I'm not plugging the product. I'm just saying that's a form of body work. The other thing I want to just say to everybody too, this is one of my favorite conversations of all time, bro, which I knew it would be. But the fact that you define yourself as an athlete as much as you do a fighter and I just want all the business people or moms or dads out there. What if one of the definitions, one of the terms you gave yourself is you were an athlete. You can be an athlete at any age.

I actually call myself that. Like it's one of the words I use in my affirmations is I'm an athlete. I think about that. I think that I think more athletes are attempting to become business people. If you look at the LeBron changes and the Michael Chandler's and the Tom Brady's are good examples of they're becoming business people, more business people need to become athletes. That's the future. That's the present of where we are. So totally agree with you on that. Okay. Got to ask you about maybe my favorite thing I wanted to talk to you about all the time that we've

you know known one another and by the way we're going a little longer brother. Sorry. It's just so good. I love it. But the last part I want to ask you about is your faith because your center, say by the grace of God, just like I am, I don't want anybody thinking either one of us are perfect people because we're not and neither one of us have all the answers. I don't people say all the time. You just got all the answers that I said, no, I have all the mistakes and I can save you on your life with all the mistakes I've made. More than those, more than I just some, you know, the Yoda of answers. But my faith has been central in my life. It's given me the most comfort. I love it. The first

thing you say as God still loves me. How important is that to you in your life? Overall, pre and post your fight career. I'm just curious. I mean, it's the most important part because it's the well-sprung by which everything else flows from, you know. I think the overarching theme of this entire talk that we've had, we've been having, even though we haven't even said the word, the actual word too much, but the word is gratitude, you know.

It's operating in gratitude, realizing the gifts that I've been given, realizing that to give anything less than my best every single day is to sacrifice these amazing life that God has given to me. Man, I got every single thing. I don't have a lot, but I'm not missing a dang thing, you know, I'm not missing a thing in my life that I need. And all of that is by the grace of God. All of that is when I think about the young Michael Chandler

coming from high-risk Missouri, God, every single person, every single setback, every single up, every single down, every single door that stayed closed, every single door that opened. God had me in the palm of his hand all the way through it in the entire time. And if you can, and I do do, I do this often too,

even just visualizing the hand of God. It looks just like my hand, right? Because we were made in the image of an Almighty God. But I see myself, a young Michael Chandler, the middle school Michael Chandler, the high school Michael Chandler, we had all his doubts and insecurities. And then the college and high school wrestler,

Michael Chandler, who just wanted to win medals and wanted to put on the top of that podium. And then now school wrestler Michael Chandler who just wanted to win medals and wanted to put on put on the top of that podium and then now the fighter Michael Chandler the father Michael Chandler the husband Michael Chandler all all of these things I can see and I can see him all the way through my entire life knowing that there's so much comfort and there's so much rest in God having in the palm of his hand and And it's such a humbling feeling. And I think when you really pull yourself back from a 30,000 foot view of man, there's been some tough times.

And man, there's been some tears shed. And man, there's been a lot of dark sleepless nights. And there's been some rough roadblocks. But all of those things, Romans 8.28, everything worked out for the good of his people. You know, and it's like, as you said, I by no means is any better than you or anybody else listening, but we are sinners saved by the grace of God. And it's that humbling feeling of knowing that you don't get what you do deserve and you do get what you don't deserve every single day and every single season

And and now arguably I'm you know every single thing I've accomplished so many of the things that I want to set out to accomplish and I still have so many things left to accomplish and All of them are tied to my faith and a faith and an almighty God who is merciful enough to see me through the tough times And he is gracious enough to continue to bless me through the tough times and he is gracious enough to continue to bless me even when I look and say, man, how the heck did this work out for me? And it's just such a beautiful thing and I'm just so grateful for the opportunity that I've been given. And I feel like I can take this thing to the top only because I live in a constant state

of gratitude. And truthfully, if I can just help other people live with a little bit more gratitude, knowing that they're best days and their blessed days are out ahead of them. Because a guy like me who comes from a small town who I was taught to do small things or somehow I've touched every corner of the globe,

somehow, because God's gonna be some amazing gifts that hopefully a few people can be inspired by my story and all of it ties back to my faith. I'm so grateful for you, bro. And I'm really proud of you. This has been an absolutely remarkable conversation. I knew that when you and I got together and did this in front of everybody,

that it would be special, but I mean this. I just want you to know, I'm so proud of you. I'm so grateful for you. I'm grateful that I got to share this man with the millions of people that I love so much in my audience. I started out by saying that only your special athlete, but you're a special man. And everybody saw that on full display today. Your calling is even beyond fighting. It's this, it's this platform that's going to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And then someday it's going to be all of this based on that platform. But you stepped into a state today brother. That was a championship level state. And so thank you, man. And I love you. And I want

everybody, by the way, to be following Michael, you want to get inspired. You want to see some training. You want to see some of these messages on a regular basis. Follow this man. Because you're going to follow them through as all the way to being a world champion, and they're going to follow him defending that title. You're going to follow him after he fights if you stay with him, and you're going to see him even step into a bigger space someday than even UFC lightweight champion, which he will become.

So Michael, Chandler, God bless you brother. Thank you for being here today. Appreciate it. Thank you so much, Ed. I appreciate it, man. I'll see you at the top. All right. I'll see you at the top.

And now everybody, share this. I know this one's being shared. This is this is spanning the globe right now. Share this with people that you love and care about. And thank you everybody for listening today. We're watching God bless you. Max out. God bless. This is the Edmila Show.