If you didn’t know Michael Chandler before Thursday night, chances are you do now.
The reigning Bellator world lightweight champion upped his unbeaten MMA record to 11-0 on Thursday night, when he submitted former U.S. Olympic team member Rick Hawn with a rear-naked choke in the main event of Bellator 85, defending his title for the first time since winning it from Eddie Alvarez in November 2011.
The win sees Chandler move to 8-0 in Bellator, and he’s been exceptionally dominant in all of his performances, defeating veterans Hawn, Alvarez, Akihiro Gono, Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, Lloyd Woodard, and Marcin Held along the way.
Although Hawn was not ranked in the Top 10, most considered him amongst the top 20 or 25 lightweights in the world. So while the win over him won’t move Chandler up in the rankings, it does reaffirm his position as a Top 10 lightweight.
Right now, Chandler ranks behind UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson, former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez, Gray Maynard, Nate Diaz, Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis on most observers’ lightweight rankings. So really, he’s around No. 7 in the division, (Ed. note: He’s ranked #5 on MMA Ratings) and that’s pretty damn good for a 26-year-old who only started fighting pro MMA three years ago.
Chandler improves each and every fight, and every time out it seems like the finishes come even easier for him than the fight before. Now training out of Alliance MMA in San Diego, California, the sky’s the limit for Chandler, who now gets to work with world-class trainer Eric Del Fierro and train with Myles Jury, who is making a run up the UFC’s lightweight ladder as we speak.
Chandler has excellent hands, is extremely fast, always moves forward, has an iron chin, has submissions for days, has heart, is a quick learner, has youth on his side and cardio for days, and, really, has never shown any weaknesses except for some holes in his striking defence, which his beard allows him to negate (although he can’t keep taking big shots forever). In short, he’s an absolute stud, and he’s no doubt the top lightweight fighter currently not under contract with the UFC (and yes, that includes Alvarez, too).
It sucks that Chandler can’t be fighting any of the top 10 lightweights in the world, because I truly believe he can hang with the best of them. For now, though, he still has a few challenges left in Bellator, including former WEC fighter Dave Jansen, who poses problems stylistically, as well as the 20-year-old submission expert Held, who can earn a rematch with Chandler with a win over Jansen. But let’s face it, Chandler vs. Maynard, for instance, would be a much better fight.
Considering it was Bellator’s debut on SPIKE TV, it’s likely a ton of people watched Chandler defeat Hawn, and that can only be a good thing for the youngster, who is ready to break out as one of MMA’s new stars in 2013. Now, all he has to do is keep winning. Easier said than done, sure, but if his performances so far have been an indication, it will take a special fighter to defeat him, and it’s doubtful Bellator has that fighter signed right now.
