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Once Michael Chandler realized that he wouldn’t be fighting Conor McGregor before the end of 2024, he had to move on with his career.
He’s now slated to face Charles Oliveira in a five-round rematch as the co-main event for UFC 309 in November but he knew the moment that fight got announced, he would start hearing about how he wasted the past two years of his career. Actually, Chandler heard that plenty of times from his fellow fighters long before Oliveira fight got announced because so many of them already criticized him publicly for sitting and waiting for McGregor to finally return.
No matter how loud the noise got from other UFC athletes, Chandler knows without a doubt that just about every single one of them wanted to be in his position.
“It’s really funny,” Chandler told MMA Fighting. “You’ve had a thousand fighters sit here across from you and talk to you doing interviews and all of them who have said that I was Conor’s little whipping boy or I was waiting too long or I was wasting my career, every single one of them would have held onto this Conor fight even if they say publicly that they wouldn’t. Every single one of those guys wants this fight.”
While he’s satisfied with the choices he made, Chandler still believes he will eventually get to welcome McGregor back to the octagon after his last appearance came all the way back in 2021.
The fight may not happen as originally scheduled but Chandler is confident that McGregor is eventually going to compete again — he just can’t say when that might happen.
“I do think [he returns],” Chandler said. “Maybe I’ve just been so close to it and so focused on it that you just look at his history, Conor McGregor is a nothing, nobody without the sport of mixed martial arts. Without the UFC platform. Without the legacy that he has created.
“I believe he’s romantic about it. I believe that he loves the sport. I believe that his spirit loves the sport but sometimes his body and his brain want other things. I’ve never walked a mile in that man’s shoes, neither have you, so who are we to critique him? But I do believe he comes back and when he does, I’ll be waiting. I just might have the title by then.”
There’s a risk and reward with any fight but Chandler getting the rematch against Oliveira could potentially vault him back into title contention with a win or a loss could cost him the chance to settle the score with McGregor when he does return.
Chandler understands that’s the reality of his situation but he’s confident that his choices will eventually pay off.
“I still stand firm in the notion that Conor McGregor is coming back,” Chandler said. “When he does, his road goes through Nashville, Tenn. and Michael Chandler and we finish The Ultimate Fighter. But it’s not going to be my next fight. I am Conor’s next fight but he is not my next fight.”
The best possible reward for Chandler after this whole ordeal is that beating Oliveira at UFC 309 gives him even more options for the future.
Maybe that means welcoming McGregor back to the octagon in early 2025 or perhaps he waits for an eventual showdown with UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev instead.
Chandler has no problem betting on himself to win in November and then looking towards a very busy year ahead in 2025.
“When he gets his house in order, I’ll be waiting for him,” Chandler said about McGregor. “If not, I’ve got no problem beating Charles and going to fight for the title because if I had that choice today, I’m going to fight Islam after I beat Charles.”
Matt Serra was not impressed with Tim Welch’s coaching performance.
Was that reference too soon? No? Not at all? Okay, good. I didn’t think so.
Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Welterweight champion and Hall of Famer, Serra, knows a thing or two about coaching. The Serra-Longo fight team has been one of the more underrated over the years, producing several unheralded champions. The latest to join the mix is Georgia’s “Machine,” Merab Dvalishvili, who dethroned the now-former Bantamweight kingpin, Sean O’Malley, via a unanimous decision at UFC 306 this past weekend (Sept. 14, 2024).
When assessing his opposing coach’s performance, Serra thought Welch did a poor job, to put it mildly.
“This fight exposed him as a coach because when your guy is winning and knocking people out, sure, you look like a f*cking superhero,” Serra said on UFC Unfiltered (h/t MMA Fighting). “When your fighter is obviously losing the fight — and starts losing rounds — Tim Welch was, like, not wanting to hurt [O’Malley’s] feelings. ‘Okay, good round.’ No, you’re losing f*cking three rounds. You got to get in his ass. … He was afraid that he did not know how to handle his guy [with] that many rounds, and I thought his f*cking corner work was sh*t.
“So he exposed himself,” he concluded. “[Dvalishvili] took care of business and Tim Welch had no answers for his fighter.”
The rivalry between camps has been ongoing since O’Malley won the title from Aljamain Sterling via a second round technical knockout in August 2023 (watch highlights). O’Malley defended his title once, dominating Marlon “Chito” Vera throughout five rounds at UFC 299 in May 2024 (watch highlights). Of “Sugar’s” last six wins, the Vera redemption was his second of two decisions (18-2, 1 no contest overall).
Kevin Lee now has two fight dates marked on the calendar to close out 2024.
Promotional officials confirmed to MMA Fighting that Lee will make his return to MMA at Lights Out Championship 17 against Thiago Oliveira, which takes place Sept. 28 in Wayne, Mich. MMA Junkie first reported the booking.
The card streams on Spectation Sports.
Lee, who is also slated to compete on the Nov. 15 Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA 8 event against an opponent yet to be announced, makes his first appearance in over a year after getting stopped in a second chance bout with the UFC against Rinat Fakhretdinov in July 2023. “Motown Phenom” will compete in his original home state of Michigan, and does so with a 2-3 record in his past five contests, and looks for his first MMA victory since a decision win over Diego Sanchez for Eagle FC in March 2022.
Oliveira, a 30-fight veteran, recently snapped an eight-fight pro MMA losing streak with a submission win in February, followed up by fighting to a draw in Canada’s BTC promotion in June.
Alex Pereira | Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
We are officially on the road to UFC 307.
On Monday, the UFC released its official poster for the upcoming pay-per-view event which takes place on Oct. 5 at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the main event, Alex Pereira defends his light heavyweight title against Khalil Rountree Jr., while in the co-main event, Raquel Pennington puts her bantamweight belt on the line against former champion Julianna Peña, and the UFC 307 fight poster puts the focus on both fights.
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Pereira is the current front-runner for 2024 Fighter of the Year, with successful title defenses against former champions Jamahal Hill and Jiri Prochazka at UFC 300 and UFC 303 respectively. Rountree is on a five-fight winning streak but has not competed since last December, in part due to a suspension for failing a drug test.
Pennington won the vacant women’s bantamweight title by defeating Mayra Bueno Silva at UFC 297 back in January. This will be her first title defense. Peña, meanwhile, won the title by defeating Amanda Nunes at UFC 269 in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history. She then dropped the title back to Nunes in their rematch seven months later and has not competed since.
UFC 307 also features a number of other marquee matchups, including a bantamweight bout between Jose Aldo and Mario Bautista, a featherweight contest between Movsar Evloev and Aljamain Sterling, a women’s bantamweight battle between Kayla Harrison and Ketlen Vieira, and a welterweight clash between Stephen Thompson and Joaquin Buckley, among other fights.
Sean O’Malley believes he was robbed by the judges.
This past weekend, O’Malley dropped a unanimous decision to Merab Dvalishvili, losing the bantamweight title in the main event of UFC 306. In the immediate aftermath, O’Malley accepted his loss, offering “no excuses” for his lackluster performance, but now a few days removed from the event, “Suga” changed his mind.
On Thursday, O’Malley re-watched his fight with Dvalishvili for the first time, live-Tweeting his reaction to the event, and making the case that he should have won the decision by taking Rounds 1, 3, and 5.
Round 1. I won that round 100%!! Based on damage that’s my round.
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) September 19, 2024
Round 2 def lost. Took very little damage tho
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) September 19, 2024
Round 3 was closer than round 1 in my opinion. My round. Up 2-1 going into round 4
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) September 19, 2024
Round 4 Merabs round for sure. 2-2 going into the 5th
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) September 19, 2024
Round 5 I won . I am the champ. God is good. 1,3,5 round I won. Defending belt against Umar in Vegas June/July.
— Sean O’Malley (@SugaSeanMMA) September 19, 2024
After concluding his rewatch, O’Malley also jumped on a brief Twitter Spaces where he elaborated on why he feels he deserved to win.
“I had not rewatched the fight, because the narrative around this f*cking fight was I got my ass whooped,” O’Malley said. “… I won the first, third, and fifth rounds, and I challenge all you f*cking little dorks that think that I got my ass kicked to go and rewatch that fight… Rewatch that fight, whether you hate me or love me, rewatch the fight, turn the commentary off, and tell me I did not win that fight.
“I won the first, third, and fifth. Oh I’m f*cking fired up right now. I’m the champ! I won! I’m the champ! Where’s my belt?! Get that belt out my suitcase! I’m the champ, baby!…
“Merab is a bitch still! I had him running around, holding his f*cking little gut. The champ is here! The champ is here! Go rewatch that fight. 135 bantamweight champion of the world is still here. F*ck Merab! Let’s go!
“But for real, Round 3 was close. Round 3 and 5, two judges gave it to me. Round 1, in my opinion, was clearly my round. Round 3 was a closer round, I still think it was my round. Round 1, I don’t know how they gave it to Merab. Just look at the stat sheet, he took me down a few times but literally did no damage. Come on now, tell me I’m wrong! Round 1, 3, and 5. I won that fight. It’s as simple as that.”
Aside from changing his tune on the fight, O’Malley also appears to be shifting his position on where he goes from here.
Following the loss, O’Malley revealed a hip injury that requires surgery and with recovery time, he might be out for a full year. But now the former champion appears re-energized, claiming he’ll be back next summer to “defend his belt” against presumptive No. 1 contender Umar Nurmagomedov.
“Merab is f*cking terrified of Umar,” O’Malley said. “Doesn’t want to fight Umar. I don’t know why. Umar is good, don’t get me wrong. But Merab is terrified. He’s not a champ. I’m the champ. I would fight Umar next. I can fight Umar next for the belt. I’m the champ. I should defend my belt against Umar. I have to get surgery Oct. 3, I’ll be back probably June or July. I’m going to come back as quick as possible because I love this shit.
“God it feels good to be the champ again!”
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A post shared by Suga Sean O’Malley (@sugasean)
This is not the first time O’Malley has retroactively dismissed a loss.
O’Malley’s first career defeat came against Chito Vera in 2020 and afterward, “Suga” repeatedly referred to himself as undefeated heading into their rematch, and also claimed he “won” his No-Contest against Pedro Munhoz. And it appears O’Malley intends to do something similar here as he continued to rip Dvalishvili.
“Please, I’m telling you guys, you can’t have Merab as champ,” O’Malley said. “He’s boring as f*ck. I just rewatched the fight. I tried to make it as unboring as possible. I tried getting up, defending — I actually stuffed more takedowns than Henry Cejudo… I had Merab literally holding his [stomach], running, sprinting from me, holding his f*cking guts, praying the fight was over, staring at the clock. Round 1, 3, and 5! The champ is here!”
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