Michael Chandler joins Din Thomas and Rashad Evans on After TUF to recap coaching Brad Katona during his fight on Episode 5 …
let’s welcome in Iron Michael Chandler Mike what’s up man how are you today what’s up boys man I’m doing good team Chandler’s sitting at 5-0 I can’t complain I’m sure you can’t complain now Brad Katona he just got your fifth win in a row he lives in Ireland he trains with John Kavanaugh he trains under the same coach with Connor how was it like navigating through all that stuff and having to deal with that man I gotta say it was interesting and but I I will say I was able to come in as a coach and just I guess compartmentalize the fact that he was you know John Kavanaugh’s guy SBG but my Fighters as you saw in the van you know dude’s kind of just waiting on them uh the dudes after week one were pretty much fed up with bracketona me on the on the other hand obviously I I signed up to do a job the job was to coach every single fighter to put in in the best situation possible to be successful um but yeah my team wasn’t wasn’t team Brad Katonah and Brad Katona admits he’s a diva and he admits that he is team bracketona he was not team Chandler uh so it was very interesting to navigate all that Michael I’ve been watching week after week through such a great job as a coach and one thing I can say I was really impressed with was you met Brad where he was at you met him on the floor where he was at and that’s something that I can say that you know really helped him out in this fight because a lot of coaches get in a situation where they want to impart what they want to impart and not really care about what this fighter is really trying to tell him but you really listen to your fighter and you really carve out a training just for him yeah no and I and I appreciate you noticing that and saying that because you got to realize too we’re 12 weeks 12 hours straight this summer on ESPN there was a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes and yeah truthfully Brad came in and said hey this is what I want to do and I’m team brackatona and y’all know me I’m a I’m a get after it work hard shut up listen to your coaches kind of guy but I also realized I wasn’t going to be able to do that with Brad which if I decided to just stray away from that and say hey no I’m in charge it’s my name on the back of the Jersey I’m Michael Chandler your team Chandler shut up and do what I say it wasn’t going to be me putting my best foot forward for him in this competition now with that being said it was tough you saw the scene there where I’m just kind of biting my tongue and I’m just I I know he’s getting away with what he shouldn’t get away with but I signed up to be the coach of eight guys for team Chandler on team Chandler versus McGregor and uh it was tough because I’m just a yes sir no sir show up do what I’m told kind of guy and he wasn’t and uh you know obviously he went out there and got the win so we’re happy about that for team Chandler well I’ll tell you what that speaks volumes about you as a coach and how fair you are but I loved watching you get some on-the-job training coaching the self-proclaimed diva is Diva he called himself the diva as Diva we have the footage right here let’s check that out when are we going to sit down and watch film um because the days are taken by pretty fast yeah well you you’re next week we’re going to throw specific stuff yeah one week old from a fight isn’t time to introduce new stuff even two weeks out it’s a little hairy in my opinion like like a week code I’m not going to try working you know yeah they Glock defense that I’ve never done before well yeah well that’s why we were watching film two behind the scenes as well so yeah that’s where we can kind of come in and yep and just you be crushed by by us yeah we got you but those eight guys and you know it would be easier to have the film talking with you in the moment and I know I only have one guy I need to worry about but you guys have yeah eight guys Chandler at this point is kind of fed up with me as I guess in my life will be so much easier without the giant Diva Brad you know you know always want to do something special now Mike I noticed it during that whole interaction you were kind of uh fiddling around with your hands was that to keep you from slapping him in the mouth uh yes Hey listen obviously man I’m just a guy I’ve always just shown up and told and had the coaches tell me what to do I’m not saying that’s the right way to do it it’s just how I’m wired I’m a I just show up and I do it Brad didn’t you know so I always say this you know this kind of blanket statement of hey we all know what we signed up for and Brad knew what he signed up for knowing that there was going to be seven other guys that these coaches were coaching yet he was still trying to scrape and Claw and try to get the individual attention hey I need this I need film study hey I need individual attention I need the Norma Tech boots I need the the ufcpi and as you said I appreciate what you said the sentiment yes I did try to cater to his little needs that he that he had that were so far and above all my rest of my team I gotta hand it to the other seven guys I love all my guys but especially the other seven the other seven that just showed up they said yes sir they worked on their stuff and now you see Team Chandler at 5-0 we had a method to our madness he just hadn’t quite bought in and I talked about this on my own reaction show on YouTube I have a a uh a excerpt from my journal where at we after week one I said everybody has bought in except Brad Katona and it was very telling looking back months ago that there was one guy who didn’t buy into the team Chandler system um but ultimately I was there to do a job and I did it all right let’s take a question from the fans this one comes from hyperdose digital Dean are you ready to come in out of retirement to step in to fight Michael Chandler if Connor doesn’t work out man I ain’t fighting Michael channel for nothing so Connor you got a job to do Connor you got it come on come on dude no ain’t no way I ain’t stepping out of nothing just to fight I ain’t doing nothing with my channels of taking them out for wings that’s it yeah yeah exactly hey we’ll go out for wings we’ll hang out enjoy ourselves but Hey listen I understand everybody wants they want answers they want results with a fight of this magnitude the most exciting guy in mixed martial arts versus the biggest superstar mixed martial arts people want answers and they want them on their timeline their timeline is now I want my answers yesterday and I’m with everybody else of course but just let the process play out just know that Michael Chandler steps in the cage against Conor McGregor we put an electrifying event and I separate separate him from his Consciousness in the second round there’s a slight chance today could be a little afraid I don’t know possibility possibility but hey there if there’s if there’s anything I know about con cares about his public Persona he cares about how people see him he cares about where he is now and where he has what he has become to the fans you don’t do a documentary saying you’re coming back you don’t tell everybody it’s the greatest comeback in Combat Sports history you’re not out there promoting yourself and saying you’re coming back and saying this is my game forever you’ll do what you’re told um and calling himself the pound for pound King listen Conor’s coming back there’s one guy he’s fighting his name is Michael Chandler he’s from High Ridge Missouri and we are going to put butts in seats and it’s going to be an electrifying performance but I knock out Conor and then maybe he retires after that we’ll see well we love it we love we love the foreshadowing of what’s about to happen Mike we appreciate you coming on enjoy congratulations on 5-0 we can’t wait to see what happens next week 5-0 baby appreciate you see you at the top thank you for watching ESPN on YouTube for live streaming Sports and premium content subscribe to ESPN Plus