BT Sport<\/a> ahead of UFC 254, White spoke about the first time he spoke with Chandler on the phone and praised “Iron” for being a “great kid.”<\/p>\n“Another great kid,” White said of Chandler. Loved talking to this kid on the phone. He and I talked on the phone one time. I was taking off into the air on a plane and he and I talked for five minutes. I hung up the phone, I called my lawyer, and I said, ‘I don’t care what it takes, sign this kid. I want him. I like him and I want him.’ We talked for five minutes on the phone. That’s all I needed to do, was hear him for five minutes. What a great, great kid this kid is.”<\/p>\n
White hinted that he was impressed by Chandler’s eagerness to take the back-up role in the title fight, noting that many of Nurmagomedov’s past fights have fallen through.<\/p>\n
“Again, if you look at the history of Khabib fights, anything is possible,” White said. “So for him to come out and take this chance, to possibly get this title fight, brilliant. I mean it’s what you should do. I mean it’s why Gaethje is here right now.”<\/p>\n
How excited are you that Dana White signed Michael Chandler to the UFC?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UFC president Dana White recounted the first time he spoke with lightweight Michael Chandler, explaining why it was a no-brainer to sign him. Chandler was a three-time Bellator lightweight champion and he recently became a free agent following a stunning knockout win over former UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson in the Bellator cage. White and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54474,"featured_media":336779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10112,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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