Issue 132
September 2015
Michael Chandler, the former Bellator lightweight champion, on the importance of an MMA mindset.
As I’ve matured as an athlete, I’ve started focusing much more on trying to make this sport more fun and all about the experience. At the end of the day, when I’m 40 years old, I want to be sure I’ve taken this career as seriously as possible and done it with a smile on my face.
As far as discipline, as far as hard work, as far as dedicating myself to my craft, I take that very seriously, but I’m trying not to put so much pressure on myself. I want to take time to pat myself on the back and smell the roses as the years go by. That’s one of the biggest things I’ve changed in the last year.
I’ve always been a very positive person. I’ve always been self-motivated and I’ve always been very driven. But we go through practices every single day and we’re training against very tough competitors. You have your great days, you have your horrible days and you have your mediocre days between them.
Yet regardless of what type of day you’re having, you have to constantly feed yourself with positivity. That’s how I remember what I’ve accomplished in this sport, who I am, how tough I am, how much of a draw I am, how exciting of a fighter I am and how talented I am.
I don’t say that intending to sound cocky and I certainly don’t want to sound arrogant either, but I think we try to be so humble and we’re so afraid to rub people up the wrong way, that we put ourselves in a shell. That shell can very, very easily become so thick that you can’t perform at the highest level. I’m trying to make my shell as thin as possible. Obviously, I’m going to stay hungry and humble. I’ll remember what I’ve accomplished in this sport, how truly talented I am, how skilled I am and that I’m among the best lightweights in the world.
When anybody suffers a loss they’ve got to learn from it. Then it’s really not a loss – it’s just a learning curve. That’s the kind of mentality I’ve had, it makes me hungry and it makes me motivated and I’ve still got a smile on my face. I really love what I’m doing and I’m very excited to get out there and outperform my previous self every time I step into the cage.
Obviously, there are things I’ve learned from the past couple of fights and there are things I want to continue to do, so it’s just about tweaking things that need to be tweaked, but constantly staying positive, constantly remembering who I am and what I’ve accomplished in this sport – feeding my subconscious with positivity.
I really just need to focus on my strengths. In mixed martial arts – whether it’s on the feet, on the ground, whether it’s grappling or BJJ or wrestling – there’s a million different things you can do. But the most important thing is to be true to yourself and focus on your strengths and what’s going to put you in the best possible situation to be successful.
I focus on making the fight easier than it would be otherwise, and by that I mean playing into my strengths and dictating where the fight goes and how the fight progresses; and I’m always excited to go out there and put my game plan into effect and, as always, make it a fun fight to watch.
I’m a veteran of this sport now. I’m 15 fights into my career and I’m in it to get to the very top. There still needs to be an element of fun but at the same time I’m not just playing around. Whenever Bellator is ready to give me a fresh title shot I will wholeheartedly accept it and go out there and win that belt.
