Michael Chandler confident his wrestling can beat UFC lightweight champ Islam Makhachev

Michael Chandler thinks he’s stylistically one of the toughest matchups for UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev.

Chandler (23-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) hopes to earn another title shot if he gets past Dustin Poirier (28-7 MMA, 20-6 UFC) on Saturday’s UFC 281 main card at Madison Square Garden in New York. The main card airs on pay-per-view following prelims on ESPNews and early prelims on ESPN+.

Makhachev (23-1 MMA, 12-1 UFC) already dismissed Chandler as a potential title challenger even before he won the belt, but the NCAA Division-I wrestler thinks his credentialed background could give Makhachev trouble.

“I want Islam to talk about me. I want to talk about Islam,” Chandler said on ESPN’s “DC & RC.” “I do think I have the best wrestling on this (rankings) list you’re looking at. I have the best wrestling – good old-fashioned, passionate American, D-I All-American wrestling, and I do believe I can shut down Islam and I can beat him.

“Do I deserve a title shot with a win over Poirier? It remains to be seen. It depends on my performance, and it also depends on what the UFC brass wants to do. Either way, I’m going to be ready.”

Chandler hasn’t really leaned on his wrestling since joining the UFC roster. However, he won’t rule out the possibility of utilizing it against Poirier and sees it as one of his biggest weapons against all opposition.

“I trained a lot of wrestling,” Chandler said. “I’ve got wrestling in the back pocket. If you saw my career before I came into the UFC, I did use it a lot – a lot of dominant takedowns, slams, beating guys up on the ground. When I took Tony Ferguson down, he didn’t move. When I took down a lot of guys before, they don’t move, (like) Charles Oliveira. They can’t get out from underneath me.

“So I don’t say that to impress anybody and toot my own horn, but in that realm I feel great. In that realm, I can control guys. In that realm, I can drown guys and I could put a lot of pressure on them and put them in places that they don’t want to be. Is that going to be a part of this fight? Possibly. We’ll see. But it’s definitely a place that I feel confident and dominant against not just Dustin Poirier, but everybody in the lightweight division, including Islam Makhachev.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 281.