16 August 2023 , 08:19
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Michael Chandler has accused UFC rival Conor McGregor of showing two different personalities during their time on The Ultimate Fighter.
McGregor and Chandler spent several weeks coaching against each other whilst filming season 31 of The Ultimate Fighter in Las Vegas earlier this year. The final episode of the show aired on Tuesday evening as just one of Team McGregor's group of prospects will compete in the season finale, which takes place on this Saturday's UFC 292 card in Boston.
Tensions boiled over during one of the episodes of as McGregor pushed Chandler in the face during an intense staredown. Chandler was left baffled by his rival's behaviour as he told DC & RC: “The great thing about Conor, and I will give him huge props here. He would go three, four days of trying to be my friend, trying to be buddy-buddy, trying to be like, ‘Hey, man, it’s all business. I’m the biggest guy in the sport. You’re on my show, but you’re a nice guy.’
"Then all of a sudden he would flip the script.”
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“Then one day he would go completely nuts on me, or he would go hit a little bit deep, a little deeper of a cut to really try and get under my skin. You never quite knew which Conor you would get. Monday, you might get one. Tuesday, you might get a different one. Wednesday might be a completely different guy.”
Three of Chandler's fighters are in action at UFC 292 as lightweight veterans Kurt Holobaugh and Austin Hubbard are fighting whilst bantamweight veteran Cody Gibson takes on McGregor's teammate Brad Katona, who has the chance to become the first-ever two-weight TUF winner.
Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler during an episode of TUF (Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)No announcement has yet been made for McGregor and Chandler's pencilled-in fight, which was expected to take place at UFC 296 in December. The Irishman has remained adamant the fight will take place at the end of the year, but Chandler explained why his fight against McGregor started when they first began coaching the reality show together.
“The first thing was, I wanted to beat Conor in every single thing. I wanted to show up, be a better coach, be a better mentor, a better friend, beat him in the coaches’ challenge, be better at him than everything because the fight itself, the buildup, the leadup, the 'I am better than you' started the day that we got there.
"I got there and realised I just fell in love with these guys on my team, wanted to get them in the UFC, wanted to win so badly," he added.