Everyone and their grandma knows Michael Chandler desperately needs to win to continue his bid to fight the top contenders at 155lbs. The former Bellator champ has lost four out of his last five fights and is overall 2-4 in the UFC. To be fair to him, he had promised when joining the UFC that he was only concerned with having exciting fights. Even if it means taking a loss! And indeed, the bombastic 155fer has had very exciting fights with the top lightweights, even if he has lost more than he has won. This is why UFC veteran Matt Brown, feels that Chandler’s upcoming UFC 314 clash against surging #12 Paddy Pimblett is so important.

A loss at this stage could potentially be career-threatening for the American. “We really don’t like using that term [do-or-die] and we try to stay away from them. I just can’t see it being other than do or die for him. Die, I guess, may not be the right term… You know, the problem with Michael Chandler is he doesn’t have a quality win in the UFC. I mean, he could debatably say Dan Hooker but at that time, like how high of a quality of win was Dan Hooker at that time?” Brown told Damon Martin in an interview.

“Like Tony Ferguson is not a quality win, I don’t think anyone’s gonna argue that. And I don’t know, if he beats Paddy Pimblett, if you consider that a quality win, really… But it’s like, how much does that really do? It just means you’re not on a losing streak anymore. With all that said, I would probably lean towards picking Chandler in this fight. I think this is as good of a matchup as he can get. And if he can’t go out and win this fight, I don’t know what the UFC does for him,” he added.

As usual, Matt Brown is spot on! Except for one point. The UFC will probably not mind very much even if Chandler loses to Pimblett. The most important thing for Dana White and Co. is that fighters put on entertaining fights. Win or lose because that is what the fans want and pay money for. And on that count, ‘Iron’ is covered. And this is not just something we are saying.

Dana White revealed what it would take for him to fire Michael Chandler

Dana White likes Michael Chandler a lot. And exactly for the reasons we’ve talked about above. But still, Chandler hasn’t won a fight since 2022 which was against a clearly over-the-hill Tony Ferguson, anyways. Moreover, the former Bellator champ would be turning 39 this year. So could it be that if ‘Iron’ loses a few more fights, he is shown the exit by the promotion? How long could they tolerate Chandler losing? Well, according to Dana White, that number is infinite! Or at least until Chandler wants.

“He’s like an Arturo Gatti. He’s one of those– win, lose, or draw, you’re never bummed out at the end of a Michael Chandler fight. He’s always exciting, he’s always fun… The kid always tries to win. He always comes to fight and Michael Chandler’s always going to have a home here. Until he decides to retire, Michael Chandler isn’t going anywhere,” White told reporters at the UFC 309 post-fight presser where Chandler lost to Charles Oliveira.

Of course, that doesn’t mean Chandler will keep fighting top lightweights until retirement if he keeps losing. If, for instance, he loses to Pimblett, Chandler is very unlikely to get a top-five ranked opponent next and might have to fight down in rankings. If he loses again, after hypothetically losing to ‘The Baddy’, he may even slip from the rankings (which is out of the UFC’s hands).

In that case, he would serve more of a gatekeeper role to the rankings, as Kevin Holland does for the 185 and 170 weight classes. But the UFC is extremely unlikely to cut him so long as he is the same entertaining fighter he is today. What do you think about Matt Brown’s thoughts on Michael Chandler’s position in the UFC?