Michael Chandler is an American mixed martial artist fighting in the Lightweight division. He is currently under contract with Bellator Fighting Championships where he is the former Bellator Lightweight Champion. But despite his popularity, Donald Cerrone does not seem to know who he is.
According to Cerrone "I don't even know who Michael Chandler is. No idea. Zero. None. People sometimes ask me about him, not much, but once in a while they do, so I'm familiar with the name, but I've never really heard of the guy."
He added "I believe you when you tell me he and Eddie had some great fights. I've heard that. My coaches have obviously seen him, but I don't care. I have so much [expletive] I'd rather be doing. When a Saturday comes, I'm up at 5 a.m. doing my thing. If it's not someone immediate to me that I'm fighting, I've got better things I'd rather do."
But even though he is not aware of who Chandler is, Cerrone knows how hard it is to prepare for a fight and to even get inside the octagon. As we all know, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone is off to face Eddie Alvarez in the co-main event at UFC 178 on Saturday at the MGM Grand.
According to him "Everyone at home sitting on their couches, they think it's so easy to fight. Stepping inside that cage is probably the hardest thing in the world to do. I truly believe that. Me standing here now? Yeah, man, I'll tell you, 'I'm going to go out there and kick ass. I'm going to go out and let it go. Best condition of my life. Best training, blah, blah, blah.' Same old [expletive]."
"Saturday night under the lights, when it's time to go and you have to step it up, there's kind of a, 'Oh [expletive]! Oh [expletive]!' Being able to figure out that switch, sometimes it will go on and sometimes it won't. ... It ain't easy."
Cerrone competes as a Lightweight in the UFC. As of May 17, 2014, he is #5 in official UFC Lightweight rankings. A professional competitor since 2006, Cerrone has also formerly competed for the WEC.
But according to him, his level of confidence now was way different to his confidence before. He said "Believing in myself back in those days was a big factor, and as I said, I'd second-guess myself a lot, a lot, a lot, I'd go, 'Man, I'm fighting Ben Henderson. Holy cow.' I'd get in there and I'd be thinking, 'Is he better than me?' Those were questions I was asking myself."
"But I finally had a talk with myself and I said, 'Who the [expletive] are you talking to?' And I pulled it together. Now, man, I feel awesome. I'm where I need to be mentally and I'm ready to go."
