Michael Chandler 2.0
July 31st, 2013. Michael Chandler has just won his 12th professional fight in a row, has defended his lightweight title for the second time, and is currently known as the one of, if not the best lightweight on the planet. Athletically he seems leagues above every other fighter in the organization. With the exception of the former champion, Eddie Alvarez, he has dominated every other opponent with relative ease. Simply put, Michael Chandler looks like the future of the lightweight division in not just Bellator but all of MMA.
Fast forward one year, November 15th, 2014. Chandler has just lost his third fight in a row, is no longer champion, and his aura of invincibility has been shattered. After going 12-0 as a pro than losing three straight it looked like Chandler had done a complete 180. On paper, three loses in a row puts you at the bottom of the totem pole and the casual fans seemed to lose interest. Even other MMA news websites stopped reporting on him as frequently.
After three straight losses casual fans will say things like, "he just doesn't have it anymore" or "he just wasn't as good as we thought." When breaking down his losses however, the reality was much farther from the truth. His first loss, to Eddie Alvarez, was actually the best he had ever looked. He was confident, had sound head movement, and flowed better than he had in any fight before. In the end of the fight, most people had given the fight to Chandler (including me). But sure enough he was not given the call and was scheduled in to a trilogy with Alvarez right away, due to his impressive performance. The fight showed his athletic ability but it also showed areas for improvement, most specifically with his footwork.
After the trilogy bout with Alvarez fell through, Chandler was booked in to a interim title fight with relative unknown, Will Brooks. Brooks and Chandler was yet another war for Chandler and yet another controversial split decision gone the opposite way of "Iron" Michael (I had scored the fight a draw). Two wars fought and two straight losses. The fact that the loss was two an unheard of up-and-comer who was not known to be as skilled as he was made it look much worse to the fans. But because of Chandlers two controversial losses and his fan fare, Chandler was given a rematch, this time for the real belt. And unlike the first two losses of his career, this one was not controversial as Chandler was TKO'd by Brooks in an incredibly weird, awkward end to yet another war.
The loss left the fans screaming that the accumulation of war after war had warn down Chandler to the point of where he was a shell of his former self; and it was not hard to believe them. As good as Michael had looked in his first two losses there was no doubt, that it appeared as if they had done some serious harm to his career. It was even compared to that of Junior Dos Santos' complete career downfall after two brutal wars with Cain Velasquez. The once superstar and champion was seemingly forgotten.
And while fans talked of never seeing the Michael Chandler of old again and moved on to focusing on new fighters, Chandler went back to the drawing board and looked for ways to reinvent himself. Chandler left long-time home of Alliance MMA and moved camps to Power MMA, eventually making the switch again to the Blackzilians in Florida. Here he worked on updating his boxing game, adding knew tools and throwing out some of the bad ones.
When Chandler returned on June 19th, 2015 it was against a solid Bellator lightweight in Derek Campos. There was talk that maybe Chandler should've been given a lesser opponent following three straight losses but it was not the case. When the cage doors closed and the bell rung, we saw an entirely transformed Michael Chandler. The athleticism, the speed, and the flow was still there but gone was the leaping-in telegraphed hooks of old and solid jabs and beautiful in-and-out footwork were the replacement. Chandler starched Campos at just 2:17, rocking him on more than one occasion in the short fight.
Chandler was then given a rematch against an old foe in David "The Caveman" Rickels. Although it took him longer than 0:44 to knockout Rickels, he got the job done once again in the second round in the same fashion as the first fight. Though Chandler dominated, he did look to gas a little bit in the second round. Chandler assured us he had tightened that part of his game up when he got the call for a title shot at his old Bellator Lightweight Championship. This time the opportunity would come against the larger of the Pitbull brothers, Patricky Freire; someone Chandler had beaten five years ago by decision. Chandler had told us he had tightened up his game even more after the second Rickels fight and he made good on that promise. He did not force anything, did not explode when he didn't need to, and he setup the finish up by beautiful jabs that had even been improved since the Campos fight. The end came at just 2:14 in the fight with a perfect fake jab-right hand that sent Freire crashing to the canvas in arguably the nicest and cleanest knockout of the past few years.
Michael Chandler has managed to take his raw talent, athleticism, and wrestling background and grow into a technical and precise striker while keeping the excitement from his earlier fights. All of Chandler's coaches from his wrestling days to his MMA career have said that he is the hardest worker in the room and his improvements are a testament to that. The sky is the limit for "Iron" Michael.
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