Michael Chandler may not have Bellator’s lightweight belt right now, but he does have a couple of things working for him: A "big" new contract with the Viacom-owned promotion on the table, and a newfound attitude.
The 29-year-old Chandler is already being called out by the likes of recently signed free agents like Josh Thomson. Given that Chandler is a former champion — with the belt now residing with Will Brooks, who defeated Chandler twice in 2014 — that particular call out struck some as odd. Why not call out the champion?
Chandler was not one of those who couldn’t understand. In fact, he sees a lot of reasons to ignore Brooks, whom he considers not only a boring fighter but as a whiner to boot.
"No I’m not [surprised], I mean, who’s the bigger fight?" he said during an appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. "I mean, there might be a belt on the line but, who’s the bigger fight? How many eyeballs are going to tune in to see Will Brooks fight? The proof is in the pudding, the proof is in the numbers that the guy doesn’t really move the needle. And then you couple that with the fact that guy is…I mean, we just got done talking about being a great employee, whether you’re a fighter, or whether you’re working for whatever company you are. But he’s the epitome of a bad employee, just constantly trashing the promotion, constantly questioning the decisions people make in it, and constantly, quite frankly, whining. You know, ‘I’m this, I’m that — why’s he getting this, why’s he getting that?’"
Chandler said that he disagrees with Brooks’ constant griping about Bellator favoring its latest acquisitions over its stable of veterans.
"The fact that he came out and said something about, Bellator doesn’t care about the guys that they have on the roster, they only care about the new guys coming in…man, I am the epitome of an OG in this Bellator division, right?" Chandler said. "I’ve been in this promotion since 2009, when I fought in front of 17 people on FOX Deportes, right, at two in the morning, after a girl’s softball game. That was the kind of slots we were getting on TV, and now here we are on SPIKE TV.
"I’ve been with this promotion since the dark days, and now I’m about to sign my second big deal with the promotion. Not many times in a fighter’s career does he get to sign one big deal, with signing bonuses and incentives and big numbers and this and that. Now I’m on my second, and I’m only 29 years old. And it’s not necessarily the longest-term deal that anybody’s ever signed, either. It’s a testament to being a great employee."
LINK: Michael Chandler goes off on Bellator champ Will Brooks, says he’s the ‘epitome of a bad employee’
