Bellator’s Michael Chandler: Every single sin can be traced back to the decay of fatherhood

“Iron” Michael Chandler is looking to further his legacy when he battles Brent Primusreplacement Brandon Girtz, this Friday night at Bellator 197 in St. Charles, Missouri. Yes, this Bellator event falls on Friday the 13th. Since dropping his lightweight title to Primus due to injury at Bellator NYC, Chandler has largely shifted his perspective, from caring about championships, to not caring about the sport at all, which oddly enough has made the former champ love MMA that much more.

Before waging war with Girtz this weekend, Chandler took the time to speak with Bloody Elbow about said shift in perspective, his willingness to compete from featherweight up to middleweight in the name of big fights, and then gets rather real on the topic of fatherhood and the decay of what it means to be a real true man.

Friday’s Bellator 197 main card will air live on the Paramount Network at 9:00 P.M. EDT with the prelims streaming online.

• You really are Mr. Missouri. You were born there, you were an NCAA Div-I All American wrestler at the University of Missouri, and every one of your Bellator bouts that ever took place in that state ended with a spectacular finish. What is it about competing in your home state that produces such phenomenal endings?

“I don’t know, man. It’s just one of those things. I’ve had the great opportunity to fight in Missouri numerous, numerous times. Like you said, I was born and raised there. A piece of my heart will always will always be in Missouri, so I’m excited to go out there and perform for the St. Louis and the Missouri fans. Yeah, that’s par for the course for a lot of my fights. I go out there and i go for the finish. It’s a testament to my kind of hard working, blue collar mentality growing up in Missouri.”

• At Bellator NYC, you rolled your ankle in your bout with Brent Primus, which basically cost you your belt. How much does that bother you?

“Not at all, man. I can only focus on what I can control, what I can expect, and I expect nothing from this sport. I expect nothing from my opponents. I expect nothing from anybody but myself. All I know is I got to control what I can control, and that’s my work ethic, that’s my discipline, that’s my desires, that’s my passion. Really, just cementing my legacy is all I can focus on, man. I’ve spent too much time in my life and my career focusing on things that I can’t control.”

“I can’t control that man, whether or not he wants to actually be the champion and defend his belt. I don’t think he’s going to, ever. So, I don’t think I’m ever going to fight him, so we’ll see. I could be proven wrong, and I hope I’m proving wrong, because i’d love to go out there and right the wrong that happened at Madison Square Garden on June 24, 2017.”

• You’re coming off of a dominant win over top lightweight Goiti Yamauchi at Bellator 192, which further separated you from the pack. Is it your legacy that keeps you motivated and gets you out of bed every morning?

“I’ve been thinking a lot about legacy these days because of my son now, who’s not old enough to understand, really what his dad does. He knows who I am, he knows I love him and he knows I serve him, and he’s knows I’ll protect him and clothe him and feed him, but he doesn’t quite know what I do yet. He doesn’t know the calling of my life. He doesn’t know what I’m trying to accomplish, and he doesn’t know my hopes and my dreams and my aspirations and my love for life and my love for this platform that I’ve been given, and how truly grateful I feel to be given this opportunity.”

“I think every single day I wake up and give my all and I live my life with extreme discipline and extreme expectancy to go out and do great things. That has cemented my legacy for him one day when he’s old enough to understand, and have conversations with my colleagues and my fans or my supporters or my family, or people who watched me and they say, ‘Man, your dad wasn’t just a great fighter, he was a great man, he was full of love, full of passion. He was a thousand different things, and I love him because and I look up to him because,’ fill in the blank.”

“It’s those conversations and those words that keep me going, and they haven’t even been said yet, but they are future words and future conversations that are going to be had on a heart and a spirit that is going to be so impressionable, and his whole entire life is going to be dictated and molded by his view of who his father is, and what his father was put on this earth to do.”

• The decay of fatherhood and the decay of what a real true man is:

“Every single sin, and every single negative thing that is happening in the world today can be traced back to the decay of fatherhood, and the decay of what a real man and what a real true man is. I try to be a real man, and a real true man, and a real true father, and a real true husband just for my one or two or three or however many children I have. That’s what legacy is and that’s how you make the world a better place.”

• Has fatherhood changed the way you approach the fight game or change the way you train at all?

“Yeah, man. I don’t even care about this sport anymore. I literally do not care. My identity, my identity is so far removed from Mixed Martial Arts and belts and championships and all that kind of stuff, that I can just live my life freely and I can train freely, knowing that this is not the end all be all. When I first started fighting, I was selfish. I wanted the championship for me. I wanted the notoriety and I wanted the belts and the this and the that, and now it’s so much more about legacy and so much more about cementing something that will never tarnish. Those belts are going to tarnish.”

“The championships and the lights are going to dim and people are going to forget my name. The casual fans are not going to know who I am. As soon as I retire, they’re going to shed a little tear real quick and then it’s on to the next best thing. What’s really going to matter, what’s really going to be kind of etched in stone is my love and my service and my leadership for my children and my wife, because that’s where the real rubber meets the road.”

• Did you happen to re-sign with Bellator after your Yamauchi bout?

“Nope.”

• How many fights are left on your contract?

“Um, very few. Yeah, so we’ll see. We’re going to have some contract negotiations coming up here soon, so we will see how it all plays out.”

• After Brandon Girtz this Friday at Bellator 197, there’s a possibility of the Brent Primus rematch, but other than that, who is really left to fight at 155 pounds?

“I don’t know, man. The good thing is, man I’ve got so much respect for Scott Coker, Richard Chou, the Bellator brass, as well as the Viacom brass, Kevin Kay and Jon Slusser, Frank Tanki. These guys know how to promote fights, they know how to put great fights together, they know how to put great cards together, so I’m just a vessel, man. I’m just a vessel for violence inside of the cage, and I love my job.”

• Not caring about MMA makes you love it more:

“It’s funny too talking about not caring so much about the sport anymore. It actually makes you love it more. There’s no pressure. I don’t wake up in the morning with this 600 pound gorilla on my chest called MMA. I wake up in the morning knowing that I was put on this Earth to continue to be a vessel of violence inside of a cage for 15 minutes, for 25 minutes, for as long as need be, and against whoever.”

• Willing to wage war from featherweight all the way to middleweight:

“I’ve been calling out 145 pounders, I’ve been calling out welterweights, I would go up to 185 if I had to. I want to get some big fights. I want to get everything out of this Mixed Martial Arts career that I possibly can. So, we’ll see what happens next.”

Watch “Iron” Michael Chandler square off with Brandon Girtz this Friday, April 13th. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for all of your MMA event coverage including interviews, play-by-play, highlights, and more!