UFC lightweight contender Michael Chandler responded to the recent slander claims made by his 155lbs division rival Justin Gaethje.
Gaethje recently took to his social media to throw shade at Chandler and say that he isn’t the one turning down the fight against each other. Now, Chandler has responded to him.
Justin Gaethje: @MikeChandlerMMA is talking out of his ass. I was waiting for the bout agreement 3 weeks into camp and wake up to news his daddy Dana gave him the shot. He’s been out of commission since the KO. What am I missing? I’m on vacay and this fucker is slandering my name. 3-4 times?
Michael Chandler: Let’s make it happen then. The fans want it. I’ve been asking for it.
Gaethje is currently the No. 2 ranked lightweight in the UFC while Chandler is ranked at No. 4 so the fight makes a lot of sense based on the rankings alone. Not to mention from a stylistic point of view this would be an incredible fight between two of the UFC lightweight division’s most exciting fighters. The fact that these two are now going back-and-forth on social media and developing a bit of a grudge also puts more gasoline in the fire fight.
A lot of the rivalry between these two stems from Gaethje not getting the vacant title shot against Charles Oliveira at UFC 262. Despite Gaethje having far more experience in the UFC, the promotion decided to let Chandler get the title shot instead, and he ended up losing the fight by knockout. Crazy enough, even though Gaethje has been asking for a fight for months now, he hasn’t fought since October 2020 when he was submitted by former champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, and he wants to get back in the cage very soon.