{"id":283423,"date":"2018-08-22T10:38:12","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T17:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=283423"},"modified":"2018-08-22T10:38:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T17:38:12","slug":"free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/","title":{"rendered":"Free agent Michael Chandler elects to re-sign with Bellator MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For a moment, it looked possible that former Bellator MMA lightweight champion Michael Chandler might leave his long-time home and sign with another promotion. In the end, however, Chandler has reportedly resigned with Bellator.<\/p>\n<p>This, per ESPN&#8217;s Brett Okamoto, who says Bellator pursued Chandler &#8220;hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Breaking: Michael Chandler is staying put with Bellator MMA. Sources say Chandler has signed a new multi-fight deal to continue fighting in Bellator. Chandler&#39;s last deal ended earlier this year and he was open to looking around, but Bellator pursued him hard.<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bokamotoESPN\/status\/1032303242472869888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 22, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Michael Chandler is staying put with Bellator MMA,&#8221; Okamoto reported on Twitter. &#8220;Sources say Chandler has signed a new multi-fight deal to continue fighting in Bellator. Chandler&#8217;s last deal ended earlier this year and he was open to looking around, but Bellator pursued him hard.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>This development is in keeping with some previous comments from Chandler, when he suggested, pre free-agency, that <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/report-michael-chandlers-bellator-contract-nearing-expiration-free-agency-possible\/\">he was not inclined to leave his long-time home<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have no intentions of leaving Bellator,\u201d Michael Chandler said on a June episode of MMAjunkie Radio.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens, but to me, I don\u2019t think there would be any other interest for me to go anywhere else besides Bellator or the UFC,\u201d Michael Chandler added. \u201cObviously, I\u2019m very happy with where I\u2019m at right now. But there\u2019s not a day that goes by that I don\u2019t constantly think about this career that I have moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Chandler is headed back to Bellator, the jury is still out on the chief rival of his career, former Bellator and UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. Alvarez, whose UFC contract recently wrapped up, could well wind up returning to the Bellator cage. That&#8217;s something Chandler <a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/michael-chandler-happy-to-have-trilogy-bout-with-eddie-alvarez\/\">would be very happy about.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a ton of respect for him as a fighter, and I just want to see the best for him,\u201d Chandler told <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.com\/2018\/08\/michael-chandler-eddie-alvarez-trilogy-free-agent-bellator-ufc\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MMAjunkie<\/a>. \u201cIf that means staying with the UFC, I hope he stays in the UFC. If that means coming to Bellator, I would love to welcome him to Bellator and finish that trilogy. There\u2019s not a day that\u2019s gone by recently since he announced that this last fight was the last fight on his contract, that people haven\u2019t stopped talking about the trilogy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>What do you think the future holds for former Bellator champ Michael Chandler?<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><i>This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>BJPENN.COM<\/i><\/span><\/a><i>\u00a0on 8\/22\/2018.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For a moment, it looked possible that former Bellator MMA lightweight champion Michael Chandler might leave his long-time home and sign with another promotion. In the end, however, Chandler has reportedly resigned with Bellator. This, per ESPN&#8217;s Brett Okamoto, who says Bellator pursued Chandler &#8220;hard.&#8221; Breaking: Michael Chandler is staying put with Bellator MMA. Sources [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":283425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10485],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v19.7 (Yoast SEO v19.14) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Free agent Michael Chandler elects to re-sign with Bellator MMA | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Free agent Michael Chandler elects to re-sign with Bellator MMA | BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For a moment, it looked possible that former Bellator MMA lightweight champion Michael Chandler might leave his long-time home and sign with another promotion. In the end, however, Chandler has reportedly resigned with Bellator. This, per ESPN&#8217;s Brett Okamoto, who says Bellator pursued Chandler &#8220;hard.&#8221; Breaking: Michael Chandler is staying put with Bellator MMA. Sources [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"| BJPenn.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bjpenn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-22T17:38:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/wp-content\/uploads\/Michael-Chandler.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"696\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"399\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bjpenndotcom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tom Taylor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tom Taylor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#\/schema\/person\/e1a3f1e5a045aeaf5b59aa1549a06a87\"},\"headline\":\"Free agent Michael Chandler elects to re-sign with Bellator MMA\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-22T17:38:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-22T17:38:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\"},\"wordCount\":376,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Michael Chandler\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2018\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\",\"name\":\"Free agent Michael Chandler elects to re-sign with Bellator MMA | BJPenn.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-22T17:38:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-08-22T17:38:12+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/free-agent-michael-chandler-elects-to-re-sign-with-bellator-mma\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MMA News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Michael Chandler\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/michael-chandler\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Free agent Michael Chandler elects to re-sign with Bellator MMA\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/\",\"name\":\"| BJPenn.com\",\"description\":\"MMA &amp; 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