Michael Chandler opened up about what he believes to be the most disrespectful thing a fighter could do in MMA, which was quite surprising.
During his appearance on My Mom's Basement with Robbie Fox, Chandler brought up the idea of sportsmanship and approaching a fighter after a knockout win. He mentioned that he believes it is disrespectful and explained why he avoids approaching his opponents after defeat them:
"The most disrespectful thing that you can do to a man after he just gets knocked out or whatever is you see guys like, 'Good job, man, good job.' To men, that's so disrespectful. I'm just like, 'Dude, give me my moment to hate myself for a second.' because that's where you're at, right? It's like give me a moment. I know you just won but this is my moment."
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'Iron' added that although he may seem like it's poor sportsmanship, he waits for the losing fighter to approach him instead. He mentioned that it's opposite because he's allowing them to have a moment to gather their thoughts and process what transpired, saying:
"It may be misconstrued as bad sportsmanship because I'm just like, 'Knocked you out, see you later.' But it's kind of just like dude, now you're in your world, I've been there before. It's something other than sportsmanship masquerading as sportsmanship."
It will be interesting to see whether more MMA fighters share their opinion on whether they agree with Chandler's views on approaching a fighter following a knockout.
Conor McGregor blasts Team Chandler following his team's first win on TUF
It's been a difficult season of The Ultmate Fighter for Conor McGregor, and recently let out a lot of weeks of frustration on Michael Chandler's team.
After avoiding a clean sweep following Rico DiSciullo's knockout win, McGregor celebrated and then got into a verbal exchange with 'Iron's team. He mentioned that their wins were lackluster and took a shot at their brief UFC tenures:
"Who doesn't love KOs? F**king holding onto eachother, youse are in here! For two f**king rounds. You think closed guard top after two rounds is a fight over?...There's a lot of unfinished fights here...You know what I call youse? Here today, gone tomorrow...Team here today, gone tomorrow."