Michael Chandler might get his wish to face Conor McGregor at the UFC White House card in 2026 but if that fight gets made official, the pressure immediately starts to mount.<\/p>\n
Now that\u2019s not just because the former Bellator lightweight champion is currently suffering through a three-fight losing streak because all of those fights came against top 15 level competition. But potentially serving as the American in the main event of a card that\u2019s meant to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States, well that ratchets up the pressure even more.<\/p>\n
Chandler, who has obviously lobbied to face McGregor at the White House card, knows he\u2019s in a bigger must win situation than perhaps any other time during his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would definitely have to go out there, dot our I\u2019s, cross our T\u2019s and go out there and not just beat Conor but dominate him and just systematically and surgically break the man down,\u201d Chandler told MMA Fighting.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be able to get draped in the stars and bars and get my hand raised right there on the White House lawn. I\u2019ve dreamt about it. I\u2019ve visualized it ever since this announcement was made that we were doing this fight on the White House lawn and I believe it\u2019s going to come to fruition.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of now, the UFC only has one American champion on the roster and that\u2019s women\u2019s bantamweight queen Kayla Harrison, who is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist representing the United States.<\/p>\n
While UFC CEO Dana White has stressed that MMA is a global sport and that international representation is expected to take center stage on every card including the one at the White House, Chandler admits he would feel a certain level of responsibility heaped on his shoulders if he\u2019s competing on that event.<\/p>\n
A UFC card at the White House may end up as a once-in-a-lifetime event and Chandler couldn\u2019t fathom losing a fight with those kinds of stakes on the line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s America\u2019s birthday,\u201d Chandler said. \u201c250 years and I would be the guy carrying the stars and bars, red, white and blue to the octagon in what we assume would be the main event. Obviously that comes with a little bit of extra pressure, a lot of extra layers. I do feel like I love this country. I love the people of this country. I love so many things about being an American. I truly believe we are the greatest country ever assembled.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have our black eyes, we have our blemishes, we have our moments, we have our pain, obviously over the last week we\u2019ve been experiencing a lot of that. But I think this is a beautiful celebration of what this country is and who we are as Americans. I would love the opportunity to be it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now because neither McGregor or Chandler currently holds a title, the fight wouldn\u2019t have any kind of championship on the line but that doesn\u2019t negate the magnitude of the matchup.<\/p>\n
Belt or no belt, Chandler loves the idea of beating McGregor and then having President Donald Trump walk into the octagon to raise his hand in victory.<\/p>\n
Maybe that even comes along with a symbolic title for the fighters competing in the first and perhaps only ever UFC event at the White House.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is almost nothing that is impossible \u2014 first of all, this sounded impossible just six months ago, doing a fight at the White House,\u201d Chandler said. \u201cNow you get it set and the amount of things that are on the table, nothing is off the table. That would actually be really, really cool. Donald Trump coming in and raising my hand, raising my arm to get a win for America on its birthday. That would be cool.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo belt on the line but maybe they\u2019ll come out with the White House belt. Something cool for this momentous occasion that we can throw on our shelves in our offices. That would absolutely be a blast but even if that did not happen, the opportunity to fight in front of our president again, to fight at the White House, would be an absolute dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Chandler might get his wish to face Conor McGregor at the UFC White House card in 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,82,640,702,3194],"class_list":{"0":"post-314718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}