Eddie Alvarez believes Michael Chandler needs to wrestle with Conor McGregor in order to beat the UFC star in his comeback fight.
McGregor is set to return in the coming months for the first time in two years after breaking his leg in a trilogy defeat by Dustin Poirier. The fight will come as part of the UFC's latest series of The Ultimate Fighter, but a date has yet to be confirmed with president Dana White teasing the showdown being held at the end of 2023.
The Irishman will need a win to restore momentum in his UFC career having lost three of his last four outings, but he has made confident assertions of doing so. However McGregor's former opponent Alvarez, whom the superstar beat to become two-weight champion in 2016, believes Chandler needs to work on a plan to slow him down early on.
“Mike Chandler’s a hell of an athlete, I just think stylistically the way he’s been fighting and the strategy he’s going about fighting isn’t the way to get it done against Conor McGregor,” Alvarez told ESPN MMA when assessing Chandler's chances of beating McGregor this year. “I would implore him if I was his coach to change his style, to go for single legs, to go for shots, and force Conor to wrestle early.
“You have to force him to wrestle early so he doesn’t have the powerful tools that he’s able to take advantage of in all these other guys. Wrestle him early enough and tire his shoulders down, tire his legs down, and slow him down and he’s half the striker that he can be when he’s fully energised.
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“The problem with Mike Chandler that I’m seeing is that he’s trying to please the fans too much. That doesn’t always win you a world title. Pleasing the fans is great, it’ll make you millions of dollars, it’ll do all that. But getting to the gold and keeping the gold, it’s sort of a selfish thing and maybe he needs to be a little more selfish in his game planning to win the fight rather than excite the crowd.”
McGregor will no doubt go into the contest as the favourite despite his recent form particularly given his last win came at at 170lb against Donald Cerrone, which is the weight the fight is expected to be held at. 'The Notorious' is eyeing a return to the pinnacle of the sport, and will be hoping a win over Chandler can propel him into a title fight against Leon Edwards given his star power.
