Michael Chandler was left hanging, yet again, by Conor McGregor this June. The former Bellator champion, of course, has been waiting to fight the sport’s biggest superstar and get his own ‘red p*nty night’, for which he has virtually put his career on hold. Michael Chandler recently joined Frank Fleming on an episode of ‘Frank Walks’, where he not only took shots at McGregor for not fighting him at UFC 303 but also implied that all the money and fame had made the Dubliner so comfortable that fighting is just something he did almost as a hobby.

It all started with Chandler’s stint as head coach opposite ‘Mac’ on season 31 of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ last year. As is tradition, the duo was slated for late last year but fell through for reasons that still aren’t entirely clear. After that, ‘Mac’ went off to Hollywood to make his silver screen debut, but finally, a date was announced by Dana White on the UFC 300 post-fight press conference. And that date came and went but the fight didn’t happen. Why? Well, the Irishman suffered an injury weeks before their scheduled UFC 303 clash in late June.

And while an injury is indeed the most valid and uncontroversial reason for withdrawing from a fight, the actual injury, a broken pinky toe, led to more than a few chuckles and insults directed at McGregor from fellow fighters and fans alike. Including of course, from Chandler, who was initially supportive of ‘Mac’s decision to pull out. Until that is, he found out what the injury actually was, which he feels just shows the Irishman is not committed to fighting anymore.

“In the sport it’s [a broken toe is] like, you know, it’s definitely not something that most guys would pull out of a fight for. But once again, I think when you’ve got options and you don’t have to fight but you want to fight, maybe you don’t fight injured,” he said. Further, Chandler felt that the reason ‘Mac’ pulled out was because, well, he was a little afraid of him. After all, the Irishman has never pulled out of a fight before, even fighting injured on occasion (as he did against Chad Mendes back in 2015). “[But that is only if you are] dedicated to the game, you know,” he continued.

Additionally, ‘Iron’ felt that the former two-division champ may well have fought if he was fighting anyone other than him: “I said of all the toes, the pinky toe is the most insignificant and that’s the sad, unfortunate part is like if he was fighting someone else, I don’t think he would have went wee wee wee home, he would have fought someone else.” 

And there is good reason for McGregor to take Chandler seriously, given what the Missouri native has promised he would do to the former champion.

‘Iron’ wants to ‘break’ Conor McGregor and make him quit fighting

Michael Chandler, of course, doesn’t like Conor McGregor- at all. And for good reason. Like with all his opponents, the bombastic Irishman has been ridiculing, mocking, and belittling ‘Iron’ every chance he gets. Of course, most of it may be attributed merely to the sport’s biggest showman doing what he does best and building hype for their fight.

But that doesn’t mean Chandler, who is among the most business-savvy and cool-headed fighters in the entire promotion taking it personally. And the former Bellator champ has seemingly done exactly that. After all, the 38-year-old has promised that not only will he retire ‘Mac’, but also break his “spirit” and his “jaw” in the “beatdown of biblical proportions” that he will put on him.

With ‘Mac’s career already on a steep downward slope in the past few years, fans are doubting whether he is even capable of competing with, let alone winning against the top guys in the lightweight division. It seems clear why ‘The Notorious’ decided to pull out of the UFC 303 clash with Chandler, even if he has been trolled to no end for it. What are your thoughts on Chandler mocking McGregor pulling out of their scheduled bout?