Former Bellator lightweight champion Michael Chandler was scheduled to have his trilogy fight against current champion Eddie Alvarez tomorrow night at Bellator 120, but Alvarez was forced to pull out of the fight with a head injury. 
With Alvarez out of the fight, Chandler will now meet season nine tournament winner Will Brooks in an interim title fight in the co-main event of the fight card coming from the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi.
Chandler (12-1) admitted on Thursday that he was disappointed that he would no longer be facing Alvarez, but he has to worry about the task at hand and that is defeating Brooks for the interim Bellator title.
“As fighters, it’s always a possibility for your opponent to pull out whether it’s seven weeks before or seven days before,” Chandler said during his pre-fight scrum. “In this case, it was seven days before but for me, it’s about focusing on how good of a training camp I have had. Focusing on how good my mind set was going into this fight and just ready to go.”
He has the opportunity to win his second title in Bellator, which only three other fighters have done in the history of Bellator. Chandler stated that he does not fight for belts or money, he fights for legacy. He knows that the trilogy fight with Alvarez will happen but he has to defeat Brooks before that fight can happen.
Brooks (13-1) entered Bellator last year and after being defeated in the semifinals of the season eight tournament, he was placed into the season nine tournament which he defeated Alexander “Tiger” Sarnavskiy in the final. When it comes to different challenges that Brooks may offer that Alvarez, Chandler made it clear that he doesn’t bring any different challenges than his original opponent.
“Nothing, I don’t think,” Chandler said. “I think he is a talented guy, but we are talking about Eddie Alvarez, who is a top five guy in the world. My training camp prepared me for everything that I could see. I was preparing for Eddie and now I am fighting Will, and I think I am in a better situation that Will is. Will was training for a guy that is not me, for sure.”
With taking the fight against Brooks on seven days, Chandler has only watched one of Brooks’ fights in Bellator. The only fight he has watched his the tournament final against Sarnavskiy, which Chandler stated he would be embarrassed if he were Sarnavskiy since he laid on his back for fifteen minutes.
“I watched the Tiger Sarnavskiy fight, but that is the only fight I have seen. He has won the tournament and that is all I really know about him. My coaches have watched his fights. We got them from Bellator five days ago. Coaches have watched the fights and we have little pointers, game plans, tweaks here and there, couple of things we need to do that we think are going to exploit him.”
Chandler is a huge favorite on the betting lines and nearly everyone is picking him to win against Brooks tomorrow night. If this does happen, it would set up the trilogy fight with Alvarez. As Chandler was wrapping up his scrum with the media yesterday, he had a message for Alvarez’s training team, the Blackzilians.
“For me personally, I have had Eddie pull out of two fights,” Chandler said. “Two out of three. I take it a little personal at this point. It’s rough to have a guy scheduled and be training for him and he doesn’t show up so I need the Blackzilians to take it easy on him when he is in training camp.”