Michael Chandler: Out of the Ashes

Michael Chandler not long ago was regarded as one of the best lightweights in the world and hailed by many as the top 155-pound fighter competing outside the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the reigning Bellator MMA champion and had taken out much of the top-flight opposition available to him. Then disaster struck. Chandler had conquered the likes of Marcin Held, Patricky Freire, Akihiro Gono and Eddie Alvarez while capturing the Bellator lightweight championship and successfully defending it twice. He was 12-0 and had all the traits of a budding superstar. However, Chandler lost the title to Alvarez in an electrifying Bellator 106 rematch and then dropped back-to-back bouts against American Top Team’s Will Brooks, the second by technical knockout.Suddenly, Chandler was on a three-fight losing streak and had morphed into just another former champion. While it was undoubtedly a tough pill to swallow, he focused on refining his craft. Chandler tinkered with his standup and sharpened his grappling, and within a year of his second loss to Brooks, the Missouri native choked out Derek Campos and knocked David Rickels cold. From there, he faced Freire in a rematch for the vacant lightweight championship and finished “Pitbull” with a sensational first-round knockout. One of his deadly right hands did the damage, as the onetime NCAA All-American wrestler reclaimed the throne. In his first assignment as champion, Chandler will meet Benson …

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