Dana White was impressed by the performance of Michael Chandler on Saturday night.
There were 11 total finishes on the UFC 281 fight card last weekend in Madison Square Garden. UFC President Dana White had a tough job of doling out performance bonuses, but he narrowed it down to just four fighters. He awarded “Fight of the Night” to the lightweight brawl between Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler.
Coming into the event, many people had this matchup down as their number one must-watch and Porier and Chandler did not disappoint. A back-and-forth slugfest rolled into the third round where Poirier was able to end it with a rear naked choke. After the fight, White expressed his approval of those two men.
Dana White Likened Michael Chandler To A Well Known “Human Highlight Reel”
Chandler has had five fights in the UFC so far, he has earned a performance bonus in four of them. He is known for putting on exciting all-out wars. This last one with Poirier was no different and although he did not get the win, he earned the respect of many people watching, including the boss.
White spoke about the fight and about Chandler in particular. He is now 2-3 in the UFC and although he had title aspirations coming into UFC 281, his future seems a bit unclear. White thinks he will be just fine and that his exciting style will continue to earn him big fights. He compared him to another all-out slugger in the post-fight presser.
“Yeah, he’s fun. He’s like our Arturo Gatti, you know what I mean? He’s a fun guy. He’s always in fun fights,” he said. “He comes to fight, man. He leaves it all in there, and that’s why people love him. He’s fun to watch.”
Gatti was known for his aggressive, coming-forward fight style, much like Chandler. He was able to hand out the punishment and take it all at the same time. Much like Chandler, Gatti was often spoken about as having heart in his fights, and in that same realm, win or lose, the people love to see Chandler fight.
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