Joe Rogan - Michael Chandler on the Stool Incident

were like dragging my feet. What happened in the fight where you lost the title, where your leg gave out? I stepped back, rolled the ankle, pinched that nerve, and then my foot just went straight. So from rolling the ankle, that's what did it? That's what pinched the nerve? You see where I stepped back and now? I thought like something had broken, like a ligament had given out or something like that. I had no idea. I wish I would have had the hindsight to just not chase. I mean, I have this thing where I love to hit people and run at them and go in for the kill, which has worked very well for me in my career. But in that instance, if I would have either, number one, switched to southpaw, because I could push off of it, I just couldn't lift it. So I wish I would have switched to southpaw, or I would have just planted myself in the middle of the cage and waited for him to keep throwing kicks. And I would have kept handling it. Only one punch really got landed in that entire fight, and that was me dropping them. Now, when that happened, how long did it take before your leg started working again? Oh, man, it was scary, man. I mean, two weeks later, or seven days later, I ran five miles. Seven days later. Seven days later, but for about three days, I looked down at my foot, and my brain was telling me to lift my foot, and nothing was happening, man. I thought it was a scary time. I mean, I got, luckily- So you were wondering whether or not you had permanent nerve damage in your foot. Yeah, and I got a great staff around me. I mean, my manager has hooked all of us up with Sanford Medical up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He was Dr. Reeves' orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Troy Gus' neurosurgeon. And what did you talk about when you looked at it? He just said you just have- You just have- Pinch nerves. Basically, yeah, basically a pinched nerve. Whenever you did that, and it just- That is crazy. I've never seen that before. Yeah, it was unfortunate. It was horrible, you know, but it was just one of those things. And that was my, yeah, I'm on a six, six out of seven, and that was my one loss, so. Yeah, that was a weird one, too, because it was a fight where, you know, it was kind of just getting going. When your foot started doing that, I remember watching it going, whoa, is his ankle broke? What's going on here? It was weird. It was bad, yeah. I mean, and it's one of those things, too, where I've talked to Big John about it, I've talked to Herb Dean about it, I've talked to all these guys. I'm like, man, would you have stopped that fight? And then they're both like, man, it looked really bad. It looked bad, but- But you're still up and you're conscious. I'm still up and conscious, and I wasn't taking damage. I could imagine, like, you know, I mean, what's his name? O'Malley hurt his foot, and he was like, he couldn't even walk, and he was falling down, and he was about to start getting beat up. Like, I was still on my feet, I was still fighting. Did it look really bad? Did it look like a wounded deer out in the middle of the field, you know, like, of course, but, you know, I always say, like, if this was back in the Viking days, and, you know, you chop one of my legs off, and it's me versus him to the battle of the death, I'm still one of that fight 10 times out of 10. So you wish the fight kept going? 100%. Yeah, it's a weird way to stop a fight, too, when a guy's not taking damage, he's just got a leg that's not working properly. Well, and the problem was, too, you know, he basically called timeout and asked for the doctors to come in. Once you've done that, the fight's over. I think the ref literally thought, you know, he should've just called the fight, right? Did he think your leg was broken or something? Like, what was his thought process? I guess, and then the doctors came in, and then they started feeling around, and they're like, you know, they're like, right here, I think his tibia's fractured, I can feel the bone, and I'm like, Doc, I promise you, just get out of here, let me, there's, let me fight, I gotta, I gotta, a calf cramp or something, I was like, you know, just lying to him. Like, just get out of here, let me, let me go, I promise, it's fine, I don't feel a thing, it's not hurt, I'm good. And then they stopped the fight. Then they pulled the stool, they pulled the stool from me, too, so, remember that? Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, what was that about? That was my commissioner, that was, that was New York Athletic Commission at its best, like, pulled the stool, and I fell, and then a bunch of people were like, hey, man, did they call the fight because they, they thought you couldn't stand? And I said, no, I'd, I hope not, because that would've been very unfortunate, because I fell. On national TV, got Charlie Brown, you know, like, all three Stooges, Mo, Larry, Curly, thanks for nothing, doc. Yeah, why did they pull the stool? It was, I don't know, I think, Was it just a mistake? I think I stood, I think I stood up, I was like, hey, maybe if I get the crowd into it, maybe these guys will get out of here and let the fight go. So I like, stood up and I was like, let's go, you know? And I'm sitting on the stool, and I frickin' looked at him, and I was like, you better hope they don't let me off this stool, boy, cause somebody'll come break your face, you know? And then I stand up, and then he, and then the guy pulls the stool, and then a second later I'm on my butt. Now, why didn't the rematch take place? Ah, man, I asked for it in October, I asked for it in November, I asked for it in December, and then finally I'm like, man, this is stupid. I'm gonna go ahead and take a fight against the scariest guy in the lightweight division, Yamauchi, and then, then he got injured, so then I fought Brandon Gertz. So it's like, I've never once pulled out of a fight, I've went into many fights injured, I've never once not answered the call, I've always stepped up, and I've always been the most exciting guy on Bellator, and will forever be the most exciting guy on Bellator.