UFC fighter Michael Chandler appeared on the February 19, 2024 episode of WWE Raw, getting on the mic and calling out Conor McGregor.
Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on Insight, said he asked for the mic and explained what went down.
“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.
“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.”
Chandler has lost his last three UFC fights and five of his last six.
He is set to fight Chad Mendes at Real American Freestyle 3.
