In mid-March, reports about a fight between Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler began to surface. At the time, it was supposed to be for a lightweight tournament to determine who faces then champion Khabib Nurmagomedov next.
“The Eagle” finalized his retirement days later, which now leads us to the vacant title fight between Charles Oliveira and Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in May. But according to Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, the said matchup came to fruition because of the UFC already had an ideal situation in place.
“Listen, Justin was supposed to fight Michael Chandler.