Michael Chandler: The Next UFC Star In WWE?, Fighting Conor McGregor, "See You At The Top!"

Michael Chandler (@MikeChandlerMMA) is a UFC fighter and podcaster. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet in Nashville, TN to discuss the upcoming UFC event set to take place at The White House, potentially fighting Conor McGregor at the show, cutting a promo on an episode of WWE Raw, possibly pursuing pro wrestling after MMA, why he ends his promos with "See you at the top", and more!
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On what Sheamus found the hardest in their Celtic Warrior Workout:

“I think it was just the overall workload, because I don’t think people really know, like, if you’re just lifting weights, it gets a certain amount of hard, but then when you couple it with something explosive, now all of a sudden, those fast twitch muscles start engaging, which increases the heart rate, and you’re doing something kind of more dynamic. So it was just the coupling of both. And if your body’s not really used to it, you could do just something very, very simple, like we did the belt squat, but then we did jumps right after. So there’s like, six jumps as high as you can. So you’re adding the cardio with the strength. So I think it was just the overall cardio workload of the thing, and then we did the sledge push, after which, thank God we didn’t have to do too many of those, because it was like, Okay, we got some good footage of this.” 

On his current weight:

“I’m at 188. I’m trying to keep it below 190, but it’s pretty easy for me to get up to 190, and that’s with me not really focusing too much, like I said, if I wanted to put on more muscle mass, I’d probably get closer to that 200 range. But I think I don’t really necessarily want to be there.”

On whether he was supposed to cut a promo on WWE Raw:

“No. Well, so I asked for it.” 

On what happened after he was introduced:

“They knew [the promo] was gonna happen, because I wanted to ask for permission. Once again, going back to I’m not going to show up to WWE and make it about me. So I asked, I forget who I was sitting with. But they asked, and it went up to Nick [Khan], went up the flagpole to Nick, to be like, Hey, we’re going to introduce Chandler. But I was like, Well, hey, why don’t you just give me the microphone? And they were like, you want the microphone? And I was like, Yeah, I want the microphone. And they were like, hold on. Everyone’s got the ear pieces, one of the production people wound it up the flag pole to Nick, and Nick’s like, yeah, give him the microphone. But then they did say, Hey, make sure you do not rip the rip the microphone out of her hand, they will freaking be mad at you if you do that. I’m like, okay, I’ll take it. But it was a little bit of a passionate grab. But it wasn’t like, Give me that thing! Then it was, it was during the time, obviously, they the UFC was just in Anaheim the night before. And yeah, it was during the time where we were kind of still working on when am I going to fight Conor and all that stuff? And, yeah, just ripped a promo, jumped up on the seats. And then, like, afterwards I’m off camera, and then Pat McAfee is, like, Michael Chandler just ripped his shirt off because I ripped my shirt off, and I was just flexing in there, and the whole crowd is going crazy. It had like, freaking 60 million views in like, 24 hours. It was cool, it was fun. And, like, that’s my environment, man. I love entertaining people. I love to be around people and just say, it’s kind of weird, because I don’t love being the center of attention, but when it’s time and that, lights come on and it’s my moment, I’m there, man, and I turn it on and just and have fun with it and enjoy it. And I feel like that’s what I’ve always done with my fight career too. It’s like wins and losses are very important, but my number one goal is always to make people feel something. If you’re buying a pay-per-view, if you worked a blue-collar 40-hour work week this week, you just took your work boots off, you invited some buddies over, and you’re going to watch me fight. I’m going to pour every single ounce of myself into that performance. I think you don’t see that with certain guys and gals in the sport, it becomes too much of a well, I’m too afraid to lose so therefore, I’m not gonna put myself out there. I’m not gonna take this, I’ve made so many ill-advised decisions in there, like, I’m gonna do this and see what happens. I don’t care if something bad happens, I’m just gonna go ahead and do it. And I think that’s why I’ve been known as one of the most, if not the most entertaining fighters in the UFC because I care about the wins and losses, but I also care about fulfilling my passion and what I’m doing, sometimes focusing so much on the on the technique and the game plan and all that stuff, can just pull away the actual carnal nature, the pure nature of I’m fighting you right now in hand to hand combat, instead of thinking well, I don’t want to lose because I got this belt, or lose because of the world ranking, or I don’t want to lose because of for losses sake. It’s like the Man in the Arena, man like, fail if you’re going to fail, fail while daring greatly, and you’re out there, and I’m living my passion, and I love God created me for hand-to-hand combat, in the wrestling mats, maybe in the WWE ring after fighting, but right now in the UFC.”

On wrestling fandom growing up:

“I was, man, yeah. Diamond Dallas Page, Steve Austin, The Rock, big time middle school and high school. Late 90s, man. I think what I loved about it too, is I was always kind of a shy, shy kid. I was a small guy from a small town. I was taught to do small things, people around me, we were just talking about, I grew up in St Louis, Missouri, but not downtown. I grew up in rural outside of St Louis, and where I came from was kind of just like, hey, don’t ruffle any feathers, kind of blend in with the herd. Don’t think of yourself too highly for the fear of maybe making other people feel insecure around you. And I was kind of an insecure kid, and the big guys had hair under their armpits before me, and they were bigger than me. So I was always just kind of like, well, I’m gonna go with the flow kind of guy. So I think watching wrestling, you watch the way that they carried themselves, and you’re like I see a little bit of something inside of me in that ring right now. And I think that’s why people love wrestling so much as well, because it’s beautiful storytelling, and there’s beautiful rivalries, but then there’s also the redemption stories. I was just into it big, big time, and then now I’ve kind of come back around and even more into it now than I probably was back then. And it’s been, it’s been a lot of fun.”

On possibly pursuing pro wrestling:

“I think it intrigues me. I think it’s a lot of fun. I do think I would enjoy it. I think there would be some intrigue and interest on both sides. Spending some time with Sheamus and a couple of other friends I have. Diamond Dallas Page has been a friend of mine for a very, very long time also. What’s really cool about him too, which would be kind of similar to my story, because he always said, my career didn’t take off till I was 40, because he came in as a manager. I think that’s one of the cooler things about the sport as well. It’s like a lot of mature men, the sport of mixed martial arts is a kind of a younger man’s game, but not really. We can get into that a little bit. I think young is awesome, and your body feels great, but you haven’t quite matured enough to get to that, not old man strength, but kind of that maturity of your body, and I think you don’t really hit that until 32-33, so I’m just a fan of the sport. Love to go to the live events, obviously, love to watch it on TV. Obviously, now WWE is now on ESPN at the time of this. So it’s pretty cool, man, a lot of fun to watch.”

On if he still thinks he has time as he turns 40 next year:

“I think so. I think my body’s my body still feels phenomenal. I don’t want to toot my own horn. But also emphasizing enough how well I’ve taken care of my body, there’s a reason why I’m still competing at this high of a level at this age, and a lot of guys kind of fizzle out. I think I’ve just taken really good care of my body. I’ve preserved my body. I’ve taken some damage, obviously, as every athlete has, but man, I wake up in the morning just chipper. I still jump just as high, run just as fast, punch just as hard. I have a zeal for life and I love the platform that God has given me to be in front of people, and WWE makes a lot of sense. But we’ll see. I need to go. I gotta, I’d have to go and prove my worth. I’d have to, you know, make them believe that I could do it and enjoy it, and then deal with the travel and the lifestyle of being a WWE superstar, and get into some matches and beat some people up.”

On the rumoured Conor McGregor fight at The White House:

“I mean, as we sit here today, I would say I’m cautiously optimistic that that is the fight that’s going to happen. They’re definitely doing a fight at the White House. Conor was on the news and did interviews saying he’s fighting me at the White House. Dana’s doing interviews saying, hey, Conor is definitely motivated to come back. Because the biggest question here isn’t, is Conor and Chandler going to fight? The biggest question is, is Conor going to come back? We still don’t know. It remains to be seen. We had a fight lined up last June. He pulled out of the fight for injury. So we’ll see how it plays out. And we’re still months and months away. Could be a lot of things that happen between now and then, but I’m cautiously optimistic, that’s the fight that’s going to happen at the White House lawn June-ish of 2026, right now it’s slated for June 14. Could change tomorrow. Who knows? A fight of this magnitude, you’re building an arena, building a bubble, building a stage, doing whatever they have to do, light it up and like, do all the things, all the security clearance. You take a UFC card in Vegas or wherever, where they’ve done it 85 times, or way more than that, actually hundreds of times. it becomes like clockwork. This is a brand new one of one never been done before. Never will be done again type of event on the grounds of the President’s doorstep. It’s like there’s a lot of logistical stuff that needs to be figured out, but all I can do is keep the main thing, which is train, be ready for June and then hopefully knock Conor out. Get my hand raised.”

Conor’s suspension will be cleared by this time?

“Yeah. So it was retroactive. So I think the way it was explained to me was essentially, he pulled out of the fight in June, and then he went on his yacht. So if you remember it was just a broken pinky toe. So there was talks in June, and that’s why I didn’t fight Oliveira until November. And there was talks like, Well, hey, it was June. Let’s just push it back to August, September, October. I think the UFC was kind of a little bit gun-shy, where it’s like, Hey, man, we just had this big promotion. We promoted you and Chandler, June 29, international fight week, we had a press conference in Dublin that we were going to do. And, I mean, I had, I had my flight booked. I got called by Hunter Campbell at like, two in the morning and said, hey, don’t get on your flight. We’re trying to figure some stuff out right now. So they canceled the press conference. So there was just a lot of kind of bad taste in their mouth of like, hey, we can’t just book you. Two months later, we got to know that you’re actually going to come back and fight and do it. So I think during that time, he was probably like, forget you guys. Forget this whole thing. This is, you know, how we get as human beings, we’re just like, Okay, I’m fed up with it. All bets are off. So I think he missed a couple whereabouts. He didn’t fail a test. He never failed a test, he just didn’t show up for a couple of them. And if you miss a couple of them, then you get an automatic suspension. His suspension was 18 months. That 18 months ends in March, and he’s cleared to go for The White House.”

On how he sees the fight playing out:

“I’ve studied Conor, obviously, a lot over the last couple years. I studied him even before I was going to be matched up against him. Hard-hitting straight, left hand. Loves that pull back left hand. He’s put on some size, so he’s a little bit bigger. If you watch his last fight with Poirier, he was doing pretty decent until the leg break. And Poirier is probably one of the best strikers, if not the best striker in our sport in general. He’s great with his timing, great with his hands. That’s a southpaw versus southpaw matchup. So it’s a little bit different than me. The good thing is, one thing that people should watch out for when they watch fights this weekend or next weekend is if you have an orthodox guy versus a southpaw guy, the power hand, the backhand is kind of your main weapon, which is always great because you got two guys throwing their power hand, his left hand, my right hand. Whereas with two guys who are Orthodox, we’re more jab, heavy, which is still entertaining. But that big back leg kick is available, and that big back power hand is available. So I think we’re both going to come to the center of the Octagon in the middle of the White House lawn and absolutely sling leather and may the best man win. You know how I fight, that’s the goal. We’re going to go out there. We’re going to put leather on his chin as quickly as possible, hopefully separate him from consciousness. Get my hand raised and do a couple backflips, rip off a promo, and we’ll see.”

If Conor can’t make it, will you be on the card still?

“If I had my way, of course. If I’m calling the shots, yes, I want to be on the White House card for a multitude of reasons. The main goal, and the pie in the sky, best-case scenario, me fighting the sport’s biggest star and kind of finally closing this chapter. I’m a human being, no matter, throughout this all. I can sit here and say, Man, it was easy, or it was tough, but I had my tough days. Waiting is tough for me, because I don’t really like the wait. I’m an action guy. Being let down is tough, even though I’ve been let down a million times in my life, as have you, as has everybody. But the whole process, just with the whole Connor saga, would be great to just finally close a chapter, put an exclamation mark on it. He owes me a fight, and I think it’s the fight that he wants. One thing I’ve said about Connor publicly isI think he’s more he’s more romantic about the sport than people give him credit for. He does realize that when he was on welfare as a plumber in Ireland, and John Cavanaugh, his coach, was pulling him off the couch like, let’s get to the gym. Let’s train. Get you out of this funk that he was in. Then he wins the Cage Warriors title. Then he comes over to the UFC and just gets shot out of a cannon, becomes the sport’s biggest star. Then he fights Mayweather and all that stuff. For as egotistical as people will call him and as big as he has gotten, as big as a global sports superstar as he is, I think he’s more respectful and more romantic about the sport than people give him credit for, as well as I think he’s more of a man of his word than people give him credit for. He said a couple times on social media and stuff, calling me out and use the hashtag unfinished business, and man of my word, he’s like, I’m a man of my word. Even though he pulled out of that one fight, even though he’s had some little lies here and there, as we all do when you’re kind of taking people off the trail in the media and all that stuff. He’s more of a man of his word than people think. I could be completely wrong. Maybe he never comes back, and if he does, I wish him well in his retirement. Wish him well in his future with him and his and his family. But I’m fighting on the White House card. No matter what, I think I should be on that card. That’s my pitch. I will show up. I will be draped in the stars and bars. I will be the perfect guy to go out there and make people feel something on the White House lawn. And nobody else is guaranteed action more than me. So I’m gonna go ahead and do it.”

On his “F it” moment at MSG:

“I did, yeah, I’m not proud of that. My kids gonna see that. But it’s one of those deals where human nature takes over. It’s just like, I’m fighting in a cage. The guy that you see here kind of clean cut, you really cuss but I’m like, F it, dude. This is here we are. I had one hand like, stumbled to the middle the octagon, and then just boom, explode again, man. Then at that point too, it was kind of like I tapped him a little bit like, you know, good fight.”

On always ending his promos with “See you at the top”

“So see you at the top came from Zig Ziglar. Rest in peace. He was, to me, the greatest motivational speaker of all time. I love Zig Ziglar. I haven’t really always been a fan of Zig Ziglar. I was introduced to him by my mentor, Chris Patterson, who actually was mentored by Zig. I read his book called See You at the Top. So I just kind of started using it. It kind of became a thing, and now I’ll see people on the streets and like, ‘Yo Chandler, see you at the top.’ It’s kind of become a thing. I think the biggest thing about the See you at the top mantra isn’t like, Hey, I’m going to the top, look at me, I’m at the mountaintop. It really is about seeing you there. And I’ve always thought two things when I got into the sport. Number one, I always wanted to change the view of what people thought a mixed martial artist was. I wanted to be different, and sometimes you’re different, so people don’t like you, and that’s fine, but I wanted to change the view of what people thought a mixed martial artist was. And number two, I wanted to use what I’m doing to inspire and motivate people to become their best self, the little guy out there from a small town who was taught to do small things. There’s a million other little Michael Chandlers out there who don’t think that God created them for great things. I want to be able to make those young men especially believe in themselves to accomplish great things. So if I get to the mountaintop and I’m UFC Champion, I’m the number one fighter in the world. I’m the biggest sports star on the planet, all the money, all the lights, all the platform. And I get there and I’m at the top by myself. What did I do it for? Besides just a narcissistic, ego-driven, selfish journey. I want to look to my left and look to my right and see all the people that came with me. Maybe they’re a summit below me, or two summits below me, but they’re heading toward the top with me, and some of them are getting there. And it doesn’t have to be sports, it doesn’t have to be money, it doesn’t have to be platform. It just has to be the internal, intrinsic feeling that they were created for so much more than they could think or imagine, and then just make unlocking people’s view of what they are able to accomplish, and I think that’s where See You at the Top comes from. And of course, I get some people are like, See you at the bottom, or you aren’t even close to the top. And it’s like, yeah, dude, I’m doing pretty alright. I’m doing pretty good, and I’m still a work in progress. I’m still in pursuit. So, man, it’s been, it’s been a heck of a journey, and I want to bring as many people with me on the journey as I can.”

On a possible WWE appearance:

“When’s Wrestlemania? [April] So we can’t do Wrestlemania. SummerSlam is in August? I knew there’s one in August. Minneapolis in August. Me versus Logan Paul. Could be awesome. We’ll see. We got a lot of talks to happen between now and then. Obviously, they know I’m interested. I believe they’re interested. So we’ll see where we’re at.” 

What is Michael Chandler grateful for?

“The journey I’ve had, my wife and children, and a healthy body.”

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