UFC star Michael Chandler appeared as a guest on the latest episode of the INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet podcast for an in-depth interview covering all things pro wrestling and WWE.
During the discussion, the MMA veteran spoke about the possibility of pursuing pro wrestling, his infamous WWE Raw appearance and if he was supposed to cut a promo, what happened after he was introduced, as well as a potential Conor McGregor fight at the UFC show at The White House next year.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview where he touches on these topics with his thoughts. Also embedded below is a complete video archive of the discussion.
On whether he was supposed to cut the infamous promo he cut on WWE Raw back on February 20, 2024: “No. Well, so I asked for it.”
On what happened after he was introduced: “They knew [the promo] was gonna happen, because I wanted to ask for permission. Once again, going back to I’m not going to show up to WWE and make it about me. So I asked, I forget who I was sitting with. But they asked, and it went up to Nick [Khan], went up the flagpole to Nick, to be like, ‘Hey, we’re going to introduce Chandler.’ But I was like, ‘Well why don’t you just give me the microphone? And they were like, ‘You want the microphone?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, I want the microphone.’ And they were like, hold on. Everyone’s got the earpieces, one of the production people wound it up the flag pole to Nick, and Nick’s like, ‘Yeah, give him the microphone.’ But then they did say, ‘Hey, make sure you do not rip the microphone out of her hand, they will freaking be mad at you if you do that.’ I’m like, okay, I’ll take it. But it was a little bit of a passionate grab. But it wasn’t like, ‘Give me that thing!’ Then it was during the time, obviously, the UFC was just in Anaheim the night before. And yeah, it was during the time where we were kind of still working on when am I going to fight Conor and all that stuff. And yeah, just ripped a promo, jumped up on the seats. And then, like, afterwards I’m off camera, and then Pat McAfee is, like, ‘Michael Chandler just ripped his shirt off…’ because I ripped my shirt off, and I was just flexing in there, and the whole crowd is going crazy. It had like, freaking 60 million views in like, 24 hours. It was cool, it was fun. And that’s my environment, man. I love entertaining people. I love to be around people and just say, it’s kind of weird, because I don’t love being center of attention, but when it’s time and that, lights come on and it’s my moment, I’m there, man, and I turn it on and just and have fun with it and enjoy it. And I feel like that’s what I’ve always done with my fight career too. It’s like wins and losses are very important, but my number one goal is always to make people feel something. If you’re buying a pay-per-view, if you worked a blue-collar 40-hour work week this week, you just took your work boots off, you invited some buddies over, and you’re going to watch me fight. I’m going to pour every single ounce of myself into that performance. I think you don’t see that with certain guys and gals in the sport, it becomes too much of a well, I’m too afraid to lose so therefore, I’m not gonna put myself out there. I’m not gonna take this, I’ve made so many ill-advised decisions in there, like, I’m gonna do this and see what happens. I don’t care if something bad happens, I’m just gonna go ahead and do it. And I think that’s why I’ve been known as one of the most, if not the most entertaining fighters in the UFC because I care about the wins and losses, but I also care about fulfilling my passion and what I’m doing. Sometimes focusing so much on the on the technique and the game plan and all that stuff, can just pull away the actual carnal nature, the pure nature of I’m fighting you right now in hand to hand combat, instead of thinking well, I don’t want to lose because I got this belt, or lose because of the world ranking, or I don’t want to lose because of for losses sake. It’s like the Man in the Arena, if you’re going to fail, fail while daring greatly, and you’re out there, and I’m living my passion, and I love God created me for hand-to-hand combat, in the wrestling mats, maybe in the WWE ring after fighting, but right now in the UFC.”
On possibly pursuing pro wrestling: “I think it intrigues me. I think it’s a lot of fun. I do think I would enjoy it. I think there would be some intrigue and interest on both sides. Spending some time with Sheamus and a couple of other friends I have. Diamond Dallas Page has been a friend of mine for a very, very long time also. What’s really cool about him too, which would be kind of similar to my story, because he always said, my career didn’t take off till I was 40, because he came in as a manager. I think that’s one of the cooler things about the sport as well. It’s like a lot of mature men, the sport of mixed martial arts is a kind of a younger man’s game, but not really. We can get into that a little bit. I think young is awesome, and your body feels great, but you haven’t quite matured enough to get to that, not old man strength, but kind of that maturity of your body, and I think you don’t really hit that until 32-33, so I’m just a fan of the sport. Love to go to the live events, obviously, love to watch it on TV. Obviously, now WWE is now on ESPN at the time of this. So it’s pretty cool, man, a lot of fun to watch.”
On the rumored Conor McGregor fight at The White House: “I mean, as we sit here today, I would say I’m cautiously optimistic that that is the fight that’s going to happen. They’re definitely doing a fight at the White House. Conor was on the news and did interviews saying he’s fighting me at the White House. Dana’s doing interviews saying, hey, Conor is definitely motivated to come back. Because the biggest question here isn’t, is Conor and Chandler going to fight? The biggest question is, is Conor going to come back? We still don’t know. It remains to be seen. We had a fight lined up last June. He pulled out of the fight for injury. So we’ll see how it plays out. And we’re still months and months away. Could be a lot of things that happen between now and then, but I’m cautiously optimistic, that’s the fight that’s going to happen at the White House lawn June-ish of 2026, right now it’s slated for June 14. Could change tomorrow. Who knows? A fight of this magnitude, you’re building an arena, building a bubble, building a stage, doing whatever they have to do, light it up and like, do all the things, all the security clearance. You take a UFC card in Vegas or wherever, where they’ve done it 85 times, or way more than that, actually hundreds of times, it becomes like clockwork. This is a brand new one of one never been done before, never will be done again type of event on the grounds of the President’s doorstep. It’s like there’s a lot of logistical stuff that needs to be figured out, but all I can do is keep the main thing, which is train, be ready for June and then hopefully knock Conor out. Get my hand raised.”
