Michael Chandler will look to become a two-time Bellator lightweight champion on Friday night in St. Louis as he will meet Patricky “Pitbull” Freire for the vacant 155 pound title in the co-main event of Bellator 157: Dynamite 2.
Chandler (14-3) enters this fight with back to back victories and is coming off a TKO win against David Rickels at Bellator 145. Initially, he was scheduled to face Josh Thompson in May, but Thompson pulled out of the fight with an injury and Bellator booked Chandler to face Pitbull for the vacant title.
In the buildup of this fight, Pitbull spoke out on social media about wanting additional drug testing for this fight. However, that did not take place and during the Bellator 157 media conference call earlier today, Chandler gave his thoughts on drug testing in the sport.
“I am all for drug testing. I would love to be drug tested. I honestly get a little jealous when I see pictures of people in the UFC saying USADA popped in at 6 a.m. this and that,” Chandler told The MMA Report on the Bellator 157 media conference call. “I want people to know how much I get drug tested. I want people to know when I get drug tested because it legitimizes your hard work. I get that stuff all the time.”
“People say, ‘look at that. He is obviously using this or he is obviously using that. You can’t look like that with just hard work and diet.’ It’s kind of a forget you to be able to say here, I just got drug tested,” he continued. “All this is hard work, diet and the lifestyle. This is a lifestyle and it’s just peoples insecurities when they say those kind of things and accuse people of using. For me, I don’t accuse anybody of doing it and obviously, I don’t do it. I just believe hard work prevails.”