Michael Chandler doesn’t believe Islam Makhachev hasn’t earned Lightweight title fight: ‘He hasn’t really fought anybody’

“Iron” Michael Chandler isn’t a fan of the “premature praise” he is seeing for an upcoming UFC Lightweight title fight.

Chandler isn’t entirely sold on the hype built around top-ranked lightweight contender Islam Makhachev, who faces Charles Oliveira with the 155-pound title on the line at UFC 280 in October.

Despite Makhachev currently riding a 10-fight unbeaten streak, Chandler can quickly dissect his résumé with questions about the level of competition those wins came against.

“Nothing against Islam, you say he looks great, you say he looks unbeatable at times, but he hasn’t really fought anybody,” said Chandler. “That’s really the truth. He beat No. 14 and then he beat Dan Hooker, who was on a three or four-fight losing streak. Now people will say, ‘well, one of your wins was against Dan Hooker, what are you talking about?’ I fought Dan Hooker at a different time. He had just gone 25 minutes with Dustin Poirier, who at that time was the No. 2 lightweight on the entire planet.”

If Makhachev goes out and lays waste to Oliveira in similar fashion, Chandler promises he’ll give the Russian all the credit in the world. But he just can’t do that yet without the résumé to back up the hype.

“I’m not saying that [Islam] not that good,” Chandler said. “We just can’t say that he’s that good yet. It’s premature praise.”

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