Tom Aspinall Critiques Fight IQ of Michael Chandler, Latter Responds
Tom Aspinall seems a bit perplexed by the fighting methodology that Michael Chandler has showcased during his UFC tenure and the lightweight competitor seemed to take issue with the UFC heavyweight champion. The hulking UK native expressed this thoughts on his personal YouTube channel while engaging in a workout with Chandler’s previous opponent Paddy Pimblett who ‘The Baddy’ bested at UFC 314 in April.
With Chandler achieving just a single win within his last six appearances, it would seem like some amendments need to be made. When getting into what he thinks is at the root of ‘Iron’ Michael’s rough skid as of late, Aspinall said [via MMA Fighting],
“It’s bad fight IQ. … It’s weird because he’s obviously a really fit guy, but if you do a sprint for five minutes, no one’s going to be fit, are they? He just goes out there, he throws from here, swinging, everything he does is picking up full blast. It’s mad for someone who has that many fights, I’m just surprised.”
The heavyweight kingpin also mentioned how Chandler’s UFC 309 effort losing to Charles Oliveira in their rematch led him to not having much faith in Chandler’s chances against Pimblett as Aspinall quipped [via MMA Fighting],
“I was watching him thinking, ‘There’s no way Paddy loses to this guy. I know a lot of people were saying online, ‘He’s a tough fight for Paddy.’ I thought, ‘Easy fight for Paddy.’ And it was pretty easy.”
The former multi-time Bellator lightweight champion would respond to these critiques on his personal Threads profile when Chandler stated,
“Didn’t that big goober say this, like, three years ago? And then he waited as long for Jon as I did for Conor [McGregor] after he criticized me waiting for Conor? Cool.”
Tom Aspinall’s task after the jon jones waiting has ended
The waiting is over for Tom Aspinall per Chandler’s retort and the UFC heavyweight champion has his first official title defense locked in. For the first time in over a year, Aspinall will return to the cage and will do so at UFC 321 on October 25th in Abu Dhabi when he looks to notch his first successful defense of the belt against former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane.
