Michael Bisping has officially ruled out Michael Chandler as a top lightweight contender after UFC 314.
Chandler (23-10 MMA, 2-5 UFC) suffered a third-round TKO loss to Paddy Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in Saturday’s co-main event at Kaseya Center in Miami. The former Bellator champion and UFC title challenger now has lost three consecutive fights and five of his past six.
Chandler constantly uses the moniker “see you at the top,” but Bisping believes those days are over.
“I don’t say this lightly, but that was a career-killing performance for Michael Chandler,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “Yes, of course, he’ll fight again. Yes, he’ll still make money. Yes, people will want to tune in. But that’s it. There ain’t no more title talks, there is no more,’see you at the top.’ There’s none of that.
“Paddy Pimblett just put an end to all of that. If he was 30 years old, he could have another go. He could dust himself off and have another crack at the whip. But no, father time is undefeated. He’s 38 years old, and there ain’t no way that he’s getting back into title contention ever again.”
On the contrary, Bisping was very impressed with Pimblett’s largely one-sided performance against Chandler.
“Paddy Pimblett looked ridiculous,” Bisping said. “He looked like the guy that he’s always spoke about, the person that he says that he is, the person that calls out everyone, that dismisses all the opposition at the top. And for someone who doesn’t call people out, he called out everyone.
“Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, he did not give a single f*ck and rightly so. The man is coming to be a champion. Will he do that? We don’t know, but I’ll tell you what: After this performance, everyone’s going to be taking him a lot more seriously. He looked like a killer tonight.”
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