Friends, have you seen Michael Chandler lately? Look at him. Look into his eyes. Hear the pain in his voice. I know he doesn’t want our sympathy — “Don’t you dare disrespect me by feeling sorry for me,” is how he put it — but come on. How can you watch these videos where he looks like a kid with a baseball glove waiting on the sidewalk for an absent father who’s never going to show up and not feel your heart break a little?
It’s been almost two years since Chandler’s last fight, but it feels like at least five. Since then, he’s coached a season of “The Ultimate Fighter” alongside Conor McGregor (which also seems like half a lifetime ago) and then spent the rest of the time harboring hopes of a fight and a payday that keep slipping through the cracks. your fingers. every time he reaches it.
He even had a date circled on the calendar this time. He had a plane ticket to Dublin for the start of what promised to be a monster media tour leading up to his fight against McGregor at UFC 303. He was so close. Then McGregor got hurt and everything melted like a sandcastle when the tide came in.
Now Chandler has two choices, and they’re essentially the same ones he faced while McGregor was filming/promoting movies and dancing in clubs all those months. He can fight someone other than McGregor, or he can continue hoping that his McGregor wish comes true. Both options have their pros and cons. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?
The case to fight now
Pro: A bird in the hand, as they say.
Swindler: Ah, but what could have been…
Right now, all we know for sure about McGregor is that he won’t fight in June. Judging by the way UFC president Dana White framed the situation, it appears he won’t be fighting this summer. Anything beyond that is just hope and speculation.
Chandler has to at least consider the possibility of McGregor never fighting again. The man certainly does not to need for. Depending on the severity of the injury and the appeal of any other future offers he may receive (there is talk of a “Road House” sequel, just to name one possibility), McGregor could be out for months or years. He could come back nine months from now and just decide, you know, Chandler isn’t that exciting of an opponent anymore. After all, what has the guy been doing lately?
All of this is far beyond Chandler’s control. At a certain point, waiting for McGregor starts to feel like staying home and scratching off lottery tickets instead of going to work and making a living. If he fought another lightweight now, he could earn a paycheck and also (assuming he wins) stay relevant in the division. He would probably have to accept doing it for a lot less money.
The case for waiting Conor McGregor
Pro: He’s already waited so long and he’s then to close.
Swindler: Have you heard the term “sunk cost fallacy” before?
We don’t know the exact details of Chandler’s contract, but there are rumors that he could receive a cut of the pay-per-view revenue from a fight with McGregor. File this under: Big If True. While McGregor may not be the fighter he once was, he’s still a superstar and probably the biggest pay-per-view draw in the sport. A fight with him is probably worth half a dozen against anyone else. But if you go out there and lose to some random UFC lightweight in the meantime (or blow out a knee in the gym while preparing for it), that’s all the excuse McGregor needs to move on without you.
Psychologically, however, it is even more complicated. Chandler has already waited so long. He sacrificed what could have been some of the last best years of his career in the hope that it would pay off in the form of a fight against McGregor. If he gave up now, what was he all for?
Besides, he didn’t get that close? They were reserved! They were in the final stretch. They say that in the brains of gambling addicts, narrowly losing releases the same happy chemicals as actually winning. And the same goes for this, getting this close probably feels like you basically almost made it. All it takes is a little more patience.
Then again, Chandler could very well be sitting here a year from now, weighing the same options. We all know it’s not impossible. If you tell yourself that you need to stick with a failed strategy just because you’ve already invested a lot of time and resources into it, sometimes all you’ll end up wasting is even more wasted time and resources.
Conclusions?
If the UFC offers Chandler at least one decent fight at some point this summer, this is the point where he should seriously consider taking it. I know it’s easy for me to say. I didn’t spend all those months training, dreaming and clearing space in my bank account, all in anticipation of the fight against McGregor that was so clearly promised to me.
But if the only thing that separates a good idea from a bad idea is the trustworthiness of a certain Conor Anthony McGregor? Brother, eventually you will have to realize that it is a very risky bet.
