Michael Chandler is a devout Christian family man with strong morals and a dogged work ethic. He also just happens to be one of the greatest lightweight MMA fighters of all time.
You could seamlessly replace Michael Chandler’s name at the start of the previous paragraph with Benson Henderson. Nobody would bat an eyelid. Especially not Chandler, who has a very clear sense of the similarities he shares with his scheduled adversary at Bellator 243, as he explained at Wednesday’s virtual media day.
“The funny thing about me and Benson is, I think we stand for a lot of the same things. I think our values are in line. I think the way we see the world, in a lot of ways, is very similar. I respect him a ton as well.”
“I love that when we did an interview a couple of weeks ago, he had his kids crawling all over him. He’s a family man, he’s a fighter. he’s been able to take his wrestling background and turn it into world championships and, hopefully, legacy type of money that would provide for his family for the next… however many decades.”
Despite this, or perhaps, partly because of it, Henderson candidly admitted to not ‘really liking’ Chandler. Although, this statement came with the typically smooth caveat of it ‘not being a big deal‘.
Chandler has his own thoughts on the tension. He believes it has been brewing since their 2016 fight of the year contender, which Chandler took via split decision.
“You can’t really like someone too much when you know you’re going to compete against them. Let’s be honest, Benson signed for Bellator. We fought. I beat him. Since then, he’s known we’re going to fight again. So knowing you’re going to have an impending bout eventually also guards your heart from thinking too highly of anybody.”
Family Men
The widest smile that washed over Henderson’s face on Wednesday came when I asked him about the latest addition to his family. His wife Maria gave birth to their first daughter Knightley Amelia Henderson during the summer,
He was absolutely beaming talking about his how his sons – Kyong, Kub and Koah – reacted to gaining a little sister.
“It’s great! The whole no sleep thing when the baby’s a newborn, that’s a real thing. That’s tough. But it’s great. My boys, they all love their little sister to death. They smother her in kisses and I’m like (in a loud, but soft voice), ‘Oooooh! Gentle! Gentle!’ They love her to death, so it’s awesome to see their love for her. She’s a little bundle of joy to my wife right now. Just staying close to my wife, but she’s awesome. Being a father for the fourth time, it’s fun.”
Chandler has a little family of his own. He and his wife Brie adopted their son Hap Whitaker as a nine-month-old in October 2017. Henderson has the utmost respect for Chandler for being such a dedicated adoptive parent.
“I respect some of the things he’s done. He’s adopted a child. Mad respect for that. Mad respect for him and his wife for adopting a child. A ton of respect…That’s amazing.”
The day she received the wonderful news that she was pregnant with Knightley, Maria scheduled an appointment for Benson to get a vasectomy. However, he is strongly considering going down the same route as Chandler.
“I’m hoping my wife and I, later, at some point in time, we will also be lucky enough to maybe adopt a few kids, change their lives and give them some love.”
Leading by example
With every fibre of his being, Chandler wants to give raise his son to be the best that he can possibly be. He made that vow the first time they met.
“The day that I held him for the first time was the day that I promised him for the rest of his life that was my number one mission in life – to show him that he is going to love because he was first loved, and that he is going to achieve and aspire and be a man of integrity because that was the example that I tried to set for him.”
Chandler v Henderson II was originally scheduled to go down on June 6. However, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a two-month delay. Throughout the uncertainty, Chandler remained prepared for battle.
While the extended fight camp benefitted his preparations, it has put a strain on his family life.
“(Hap)’s doing awesome, but he misses his dad. These last 12 weeks, as a fighter, have been absolutely phenomenal, but as a father and a husband, it’s been tough.”
“Being away from my son, he’s old enough now to know that daddy has to go to work and he’s old enough to know that daddy should be there. So, to be away from him and to be away from my wife, my two favourite people in the world, it was extremely hard. But, all the sacrifices are going to come to a culmination and it will all be worth it when I get my hand raised on Friday night.”
Hap will not be watching his father compete at Bellator 243. He does not yet understand the full weight of what Dad does for a living. Michael has undertaken measures to ensure that someday he will know exactly why he does what he does.
“But I wrote a letter to him the other day talking to him about how someday he will understand the sacrifices that his dad had to make to provide for him, to provide for his mom. He’ll understand that men have to go to work. He’ll understand that men have to put their work boots on, no matter what form or what fashion. We were put on this Earth to do some amazing things and to pour our heart into our passions.”
Chandler referenced an upcoming documentary about his career being made by his friend and filmmaker Drew Gabreski. He is hoping that the film will show his son what kind of a man his father is.
“Not because of what I told him. Not because I said, ‘I was this’ or ‘I was that’, but because of the people that I was around or my legacy amongst fans or the people that I came into contact with or the people that I worked with would say, ‘Your Dad is a great man and a great competitor because of X, Y and Z.'”
“I don’t want to have to tell him. I want other people to say it. That’s my goal every single day.”
Battered, beaten, scarred
After amassing a pristine 12-0 record, Chandler lost three consecutive fights in a 12-month period to Eddie Alvarez and Will Brooks twice respectively.
He confessed to becoming a recluse following the loss to Alvarez. The bout was nominated for 2013’s Fight of the Year at the World MMA awards, but he did not attend the ceremony.
He does not react that way to losses inside the cage anymore.
“Fear of failure is the most poisonous drug you can ever take in your whole life. Being afraid to fail, and once you have a failure, trying to run as far away as possible.”
“You’ve got to put yourself out there for all the world to see because if you fail while daring greatly, you’re only going to get criticism from the critics that are sitting on the sidelines. And I realised that during that skid.”
A four-fight win-streak (including two successful title fights) followed.
He then lost the title in a fight everyone expected him to win on the promotion’s New York City and PPV debut. He picked himself up, dusted himself off and won a couple of fights before getting that win back against Brent Primus.
After losing the title again in devastating fashion to Patricio Pitbull, he bounced back with a ferocious first-round KO of Sidney Outlaw.
This kind of resilience was cultivated through a great deal of self-reflection.
“I realised, kind of long ago, that you never get criticism from people that are above you. You only get criticism from people that are below you. A lot of times you are your own worst critic. Your inner dialogue is the most detrimental thing that you can hear in your entire life.”
“For me, it was just realising how blessed I am to have two capable hands, two capable arms, two capable legs to be able to go out there and perform in front of millions of people and do something not a lot of people get to do that’s inspiring, that’s uplifting, that’s a metaphor for life.”
“Fighting for a living is a metaphor for life and I’m painting a masterpiece every single time I step into that cage.”
“It’s a wonderful, beautiful blessing of a life that I get to live and to give anything less than my best or, to ever quit, to ever see failure or quitting as an option, would be to squander those gifts that I’ve been given. So I just kept going and here I am.”
Free agency
The Henderson rematch is the last fight on Chandler’s Bellator contract. Bellator will have exclusive rights to resign him for a short period, but if a deal is not signed, he will be free to talk to other promotions.
If there were no contractual barriers, Chandler admitted that there are a few prospective opponents outside of Bellator that have caught his eye.
“You fight Khabib because he’s the number one guy in the world. You fight Eddie because you cap off the trilogy. But really, you fight Conor because it’s the biggest money with the most eyeballs.”
“I would also love that Pitbull rematch. Obviously, that fight ended very quickly. I zigged when I should have zagged and he caught me. I believe I’m a better fighter on any given night, nine times out of 10, and he just caught me that one time.”
Once the fight is over on Friday night, Chandler will reunite with his family. He is looking forward to sharing a meal at their favourite restaurant True Food and taking a well-deserved break.
“Definitely a vacation is in the works. I don’t care if there’s travel bans or not. we’re going to figure something out. The Chandlers are going on vacation after this.”
“My wife deserves it. My wife deserves to be sitting on a beach somewhere. She deserves to be surrounded by palm trees somewhere for all the hard work she puts in plus all the support and service that she shows me every single day.
“The Chandler vacation needs to happen ASAP.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
