Michael Chandler had a great time watching Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett battle it out for the UFC interim lightweight title.
Chandler, who has faced both competitors in the past, was at T-Mobile Arena for the headliner of UFC 324 in January, where Gaethje delivered a lopsided performance to become a two-time interim titleholder. With the fight being so important for the division, Chandler saw a lot of things he enjoyed.
“It was good, it was a good fight,” Chandler told MMA Fighting while promoting Phorm Energy. “Obviously, it was dominant by Gaethje because he kept a good game plan, But there were moments where you saw the toughness, obviously, of Paddy, the durability of Paddy, and even just the abilities of Paddy. I mean, he’s, like I said, he’s better than everybody gave him credit for, and just the mentality of Justin, and he’s a hammer looking to smash a nail and, and Paddyy doesn’t have maybe the skills, or the abilities, and violence that Justin has, but he took a licking and kept on ticking, man.
“He got dropped a couple of times, got back up. He was busted up. He was bruised, and he still had his moments where he was landing shots and landing punches, and going for takedowns and throwing kicks and hitting, Justin with, I think, more than people expected him to. So it was a good fight. It was a fun fight. And yeah, man, maybe I’ll tussle with one of those guys in the future. We’ll see.”
While a lot of the community put the fight over as a classic, and potential Fight of the Year contender, some fighters pointed out the other side of things. For instance, Josh Barnett, and Matt Brown — who is one-half of MMA Fighting’s The Fighter vs. The Writer podcast — agreed that the fight was fun, but certainly not at a high level in regards to determining who the best fighter in the world is.
“I wouldn’t say it left a bad taste in my mouth or anything. I was just saying what I felt,” Brown said on the show following UFC 324. “I think those guys would admit themselves it was a sloppy, undisciplined fight. They had no responsible hands, responsible posture, no discipline. I think they’d probably agree with that. Justin Gaethje, all respect to him, the guy doesn’t care about that stuff either. It seemed like he was kind of moving towards that but Saturday, he didn’t care about that stuff at all.
“The fact that anyone would disagree with the fact that this was a sloppy, slugfest just blows my mind. It wasn’t a high skilled, high level fight. It was just two guys swinging for the fences and Justin’s just better at that game. He’s probably the best in the world at that game.”
Chandler was asked about the critics of the fight, and believes it’s more about people being negative than anything else.
“Yeah, it’s hard, right? Because the sport should continue to evolve and you think it continues to evolve, so therefore, it should become cleaner, more streamlined, less sloppy, so to speak,” Chandler said. “But at the end of the day, it’s still a street fight, you know? There’s a very limited amount of rules. He’s throwing something, I’m throwing something. He’s throwing something as I’m throwing something, you get hit with something.
“I look at it like I would never disrespect two guys who go out there and they lay it on the line. Was there a little [bit of] sloppy moments? Yes, of course, there was. But there’s little sloppy moments in every aspect of the sport, and obviously, there’s going to be the people who’ve never done it talking about it, but then guys who have, who have done it, who somewhat have a tendency to pretty much poo-poo on every single fight, or every single thing, not to mention any names.
“It’s one of those deals where, man, I was entertained. I thought it was a great fight. I think the storyline was Justin Gaethje is still one of the top guys in the division, Paddy Pimblett may be, not necessarily, one of the top guys in the division from a skill standpoint when you watch that fight, but he’s tougher than nails and he’s got the heart of a champion. So it was good for everybody. It was definitely good for the first fight on Paramount.”
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