Michael Chandler injured his voice during an impromptu appearance on WWE’s Monday Night Raw, where he called out Conor McGregor for an unbooked fight, and hinted at further appearances in WWE.
If you notice Michael Chandler sounding a bit rough, don’t be alarmed. He’s not sick, just a bit voice-weary from his stint on Monday Night Raw. He chuckled about it during The MMA Hour on Wednesday.
Before he went on air, a producer warned him about the mic. “It’s gated,” they said. Chandler was clueless. “What’s gated mean?” he asked. The producer explained he’d have to speak up. Chandler didn’t think it’d be an issue. But then, the moment took over, and a star was born.
This week, Chandler, 37, shocked the combat sports world. He made an unexpected appearance on WWE’s flagship program, grabbed the mic, and delivered a fiery promo. He called out Conor McGregor for their yet-to-be-scheduled fight.
Chandler’s eventful night quickly went viral. It resonated in both the MMA and professional wrestling worlds. According to the former three-time Bellator champ, it was all spontaneous.
“Two minutes before, they said, ‘Hey, they’re going to put the camera on you.’ I said, ‘Why don’t you give me that microphone?'” Chandler remembered. The response? “Hold on, let me run it up the flagpole real quick.” A minute later, they told him he’d get the mic. And then, magic happened. Nothing was prepared. He was thrown into the fire. And he loved it.
“There’s no video footage of me taking my shirt off, but Pat McAfee said I did [after], so got the crowd into it, I was flexing on everybody. It was fun, man. It was a lot of fun, and man, I’m tired of waiting on Conor, so get his candy ass back to the octagon.”
Chandler’s initiative was well received by the WWE brass. He met with WWE chief content officer and head of creative Paul Michael Levesque, better known as Triple H, after his TV spot. He was told that WWE “liked what they saw.” While he dismissed rumors that the promo was tied to plans for a Wrestlemania crossover appearance, he did express interest in further blurring the lines between UFC and WWE. Especially now that both brands are under the same TKO Group Holdings umbrella. He hinted that this might not be his last WWE appearance.
“We will see,” Chandler said. “Obviously there’s a crossover there. Ton of respect for the wrestlers, the brass there. They have a ton of respect for the UFC. It was really cool being there, watching other athletes and entertainers and performers, and [them] being huge fans of mixed martial arts, and me of them. So it was really cool. There’s a lot of synergy there and the sky’s the limit when it comes to TKO Group and what we can do in the crossover, and yeah, man, it’s probably just the very beginning.”
Chandler has been loosely linked to a UFC return bout against McGregor since coaching against the Irishman on The Ultimate Fighter 31 in early 2023. After a long, drawn-out saga, McGregor announced his comeback fight against Chandler on New Year’s Eve for June 29 at the UFC’s annual International Fight Week pay-per-view. UFC CEO Dana White has since denied McGregor’s claims, however, and maintained that there is no fight on the books for the former two-division champion. White reiterated that sentiment this past weekend after UFC 298, stating that he still does not know when — or if — McGregor will return.
McGregor, 35, has not competed since suffering a broken leg in his July 2021 loss to Dustin Poirier, but has repeatedly voiced his displeasure about not being booked by the UFC. Unfortunately, despite the buzz Chandler’s WWE appearance ignited, the former Bellator lightweight champ said there have been no developments on the McGregor front.
“There’s a lot of complicated stuff happening behind the scenes,” Chandler said. “Nobody has had to feel like they’ve waited longer than me, right? I’ve been ready to fight since right after The Ultimate Fighter. But I also understand the time off has been good, the time with my family has been good, business has been booming outside of me fighting in the cage for a paycheck. But ultimately, Conor’s got his stuff going on. He’s now promoting Road House, that’s coming out in March. Obviously there was the USADA stuff and then now the new drug-testing stuff. There was just all these different layers. Plus what Dana has said, man — money complicates things. There’s a lot of money involved in this fight.
“Everybody, whether you love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect what [McGregor] has built, right? So it has complicated things. But either way, the Chandler train is continuing to move forward, and we’re not getting off this train. This is the fight that is happening. I can’t tell you a date, I can’t tell you a weight, but I can tell you the fight is happening. And I have way too many assurances that this fight is happening to think otherwise. So there’s some dates that make sense — obviously UFC 300 made a lot of sense, it really did.
“I’ve got to be honest with you, I thought that was what it was going to be. It makes a lot of sense. Why wouldn’t you want to headline the biggest card that UFC has ever put on? But ultimately, it’s not and we stay patient, we stay training, we stay ready.”