Michael Chandler
When you're wrestling, it's such an amazing sport. I love it. I loved that I came from that background.
I just think that with my wrestling background there's not going to be any doubt in my mind that if I have to go through a three round war that in the third round I'm gonna be more fresh, more tenacious, I'm gonna want that win more than anybody else I'm going to have to fight.
Life throws you curveballs and there are things that happen - you don't understand why they happened at the time. But then you step back and understand you're a better fighter and competitor because of the things that happened.
I don't want to just be a great fighter, but also a great man.
My wrestling's always better than most people's.
At first I thought, beer's nasty. Then I found IPAs. They're delicious.
On my way to winning the title, it was great for me, but once I won the title, it was tough for me to get fights.
I really have a heart for children who suffer from cancer. I can't imagine having to go through that at such a young age.
I'm a guy who's been around this sport on the outside looking in, seeing, watching, scheming, plotting and planning his next big move.
There's still times I wish I could throw on the black and gold singlet and go out there in the Hearnes Center and wrestle for the Missouri Tigers. I miss that and I miss the stuff about college wrestling.
I talk to my god every day and he's completely fine with me beating the hell out of people.
I look after two people - my wife and my son.
I love Scott Coker and I love Bellator and I love what we have built together and it's a little uneasy to think that I will no longer be under contract with Bellator after I knock out Benson Henderson and get my hand raised.
My body is durable, my body is able to withstand a lot of practices, a lot of punishment.
Bellator wouldn't be who they are without my performances and Michael Chandler wouldn't be who he is without Bellator promoting him and us having a phenomenal symbiotic relationship.
I've been blessed so much in my own life and I want to spread that blessing to others who need it.
I just try to keep the main thing the main thing: getting my butt in the gym.
You don't hope to go up and hit a single. You go up and hope to hit a home run.
I'm a nasty human being when I step into that cage, but before that I could care less.
I got a wife and a son I have to fight for.
Letting emotion get into it isn't part of my game. Letting animosity or a rivalry come into it, that's all for the show.
Everyone who has kids that you talk to tells you, 'Wait until you have kids. It's going to change you.' You're like, 'Nah, come on. How can it change you that much?' But it changes you so much.
I've had a phenomenal life. I have a phenomenal God that I serve. I have a phenomenal wife.
I'm not who I am without the organization of Bellator.
Bellator has taken care of me, and I've taken care of them. It's been the perfect storm of a symbiotic relationship - them having an asset they were not willing to lose, and me being in a situation where the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
If I had the opportunity to fight Khabib, or anyone ranked No. 1 - I've played that in my head a million times.
Not since 2011, when I stepped into the cage and fought Eddie Alvarez for the first time and was the extreme underdog - I've never quite had that feeling of a 10 since then.
For me, getting up is an inside job, but it has been hard stepping in the cage with guys who I've had to lose against and not a lot to gain.
Benson Henderson is a guy that I fought before. He has two arms and two legs. He has certain patterns, mannerisms and tendencies that I know I can go out there and exploit.
The greatest thing about fighting a guy like Dave Rickels: He always comes to fight.
Finishing a guy like Benson Henderson, who hasn't been finished since for six years, the guy doesn't get finished and I finished it with a switch-step switch to Southpaw, knocked him out with my left hand.
Henri Hooft has made my hands and feet deadly weapons.
Henri Hooft is the greatest striking coach on planet. He's phenomenal leader - he makes me believe in me more than I will ever believe in me.
I just turned 34 and feel like the best striker I've ever been.
It's damage to a nerve. It pretty much shut down the whole lower part of my left leg. I wasn't able to step anymore. It's called foot drop - basically, you can't lift your foot.
There are always a couple of ways you envision fights going; you always envision a win and a great finish.
Derek Campos is really tough.
I built my name on fighting so hard - I'll always do that - but I'm also trying to become more of a veteran, to be be calm and calculated and not always trying to bowl people over.
I'm just getting better every single day and I want to be the best in the world.
Benson is a champion. I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't scared to death inside this cage, stepping into the cage with that monster.
It really has been just take it one day a time, one fight at a time, one training camp at a time, one year at a time.
I had my first fight in August of 2009 and haven't looked back since.
If I could do this until I was 60, I would. This is a great life. All I do is train, all I do is work out, and prolong my life by the training that I'm doing, the things I have to do as professional athlete.
I want to build a brand that inspires as many people as I possibly can.
Nothing has really made me upset aside from the baseless, false accusations of PED use.
Obviously, as a young, young, hungry fighter, I'd like to be fighting three or four times a year.
I don't focus on how I'm gonna get the finish or how I would like to get the finish. I focus on just my game plan that I've gone over with myself, my coaches. If the finish comes it comes.
No matter where I've been or where I go, a piece of Missouri is always with me because this is where I'm from and where I grew up.
You have to believe that you deserve great things. You have to believe that you deserve to win each fight that you're in. You have to believe that you deserve to become a champion.Collection: Believe