Former UFC lightweight title challenger Michael Chandler has made a bold prediction and stated that his recent opponent Justin Gaethje is going to be the lightweight champion by next year as he feels Gaethje has what it takes to beat the UFC lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira. Michael Chandler recently fought Justin Gaethje at UFC 268 in an absolute war. The battle between those two is the top contender for the fight of the year contention. The fight was a very high-paced battle and neither of the fighters was ready to give up. Justin Gaethje managed to land the harder and most effective strikes. The judges eventually scored the fight for Gaethje as he even scored a knockdown in the fight.
After the fight was over Justin Gaethje called for his title shot and said that he want to fight the winner between Dustin Poirier and Charles Oliveira who will be fighting at UFC 269 for the UFC Lightweight championship.
Michael Chandler says Justin Gaethje is the no.1 contender
Michael Chandler in his recent interview has said that he feels like Justin Gaethje is the perfect guy to beat Charles Oliveira. He had also predicted that Justin Gatehje will be the UFC lightweight champion by next year.
“I think Justin Gaethje is the clear-cut No. 1 contender,” Chandler said on The MMA Hour. “He just beat me. [Islam] Makhachev, obviously the way he dispatched Dan Hooker was absolutely phenomenal. What he did was great. Does it warrant a title shot? Not compared to what Justin Gaethje has done, that’s my thought.”
“I think Justin Gaethje breaks Charles Oliveira,” Chandler added. “But the more likely scenario is Poirier wins that fight because I think he has more tools and he’s just better in certain areas and he’s not going to get submitted by Oliveira, even though we have seen an increased striking level by Oliveira, as we saw in our fight. But I think Justin Gaethje cleans up a couple of things, remembers how he lost to Dustin Poirier a couple of years ago, and I think he wins the title, middle of next year.”
Now Michael Chandler is recovering from her injuries which he suffered in his matchup with Justin Gaethje. Chandler also talked about how the fight went down and he also said that he is thankful that the fight wasn’t five rounds.
“I’m glad it wasn’t a five-round fight,” Chandler said. “We both took as much damage as we needed to take in 15 minutes. He gets to go off and hopefully get that title shot, I think he goes and beats Dustin Poirier or Charles Oliveira, middle of next year, and then maybe we set up a rematch when I get a win or two and we’ll see what happens. But I’m glad it was only 15 minutes.”
HIGHLIGHTS:
- Michael Chandler says Justin Gaethje is the no.1 contender
- Chandler says he is glad that the fight was 15 minutes
Purchase the UFC merch here.
Click to Predict here