Michael Chandler comes to Conor McGregor's defense over UFC 329 conspiracy theories

Almost immediately after the UFC 329 main event ended in 69 seconds after Conor McGregor suffered a knee injury, the conspiracy theories began swirling online. The Irishman seemingly suffered the injury in the opening seconds of the first round in his rematch with former featherweight champion and BMF titleholder Max Holloway.

McGregor landed awkwardly after leaping into the air with a kick at the sound of the first-round bell. He fell to the canvas. Moments later he fell again while throwing a kick. Following falling a third time after throwing a punch, the fight was eventually waived off.

The conspiracies ranged from McGregor entering the fight with an injury to "The Notorious" faking the injury. On Thursday, Michael Chandler defended McGregor against the online allegations.

"A lot of speculation is going on out there. A lot of people disappointed about how the fight went," Chandler said in an Instagram video posted on Monday. "A lot of conspiracy theories going on out there. I understand people are upset. I understand people are let down by this massive return that everybody wanted to see, the massive return that everybody wanted to be entertained by. We're missing the fact that we are just in a crazy sport in which we are pushing our bodies to the limits, a lot of times contorting them and taking massive amounts of force at any given moment.

"A guy like Conor, who comes out in the first three seconds, jumps across the cage, turns his body, throws a kick, lands weird, leg buckles, then throws another kick, leg buckles, throws a punch, leg buckles. And everybody's trying to figure out, 'Hey, was Conor injured prior to the fight? Did Conor just show up and hoodwink everybody, and he just showed up for a paycheck and doesn't care who he hurts in the process?'

"I would be absolutely surprised, like the most surprised person on the planet, if Conor just showed up for a paycheck, limped in there, and said, 'I don't care. I'm going to give you guys one minute, shave my head into a mohawk, show up, do the intros, and then just bow out one minute later.

""You can say what you want about Conor. Conor's mistakes are well documented, Conor's shortcomings are well documented over the past 15 years in this sport, but one thing he is not, he's not a quitter. One thing he is not is a bamboozler. He's going to make you look left when really he's doing something on the right here and there to build fights and to build storylines and to make you think and make you feel something, but he's not the type of guy who will show up to a fight injured and bow out within one minute," said Chandler.

"The UFC is not the type of organization that's going to have conversations behind closed doors and say, 'Hey, it's all good, man. We're going to get everybody hooked in on this Paramount stream, and then you're going to bounce out one minute in.' That's just not what they do. It's not how business works, but I understand the speculation, and I understand the conspiracy theories, and I understand that everybody's drawing at straws right now, looking for scouring over the internet, showing us slowing down, reversing, looking at a bunch of different angles of how Connor tripped over his shoes or he was walking into some rehab clinic, or he was walking into some hospital."

A lot of people have speculated why McGregor would employ such a high-risk, low-percentage move to start the fight. For Chandler, who has trained to face McGregor and coached opposite him on The Ultimate Fighter, the answer is easy.

"I've had a lot of people say, 'Man, why would Conor do that? He came out like an idiot, jumped across the cage, and threw a kick.' Conor always does that," said Chandler. "Every single fight, when I was training to fight him, I was expecting within the first five minutes some kind of spinning wheel kick, some type of flying knee, some type of flying Superman punch. He did the Superman punch against Cowboy Cerrone within the first five seconds. He's done multiple fights (where) he's done within the first five seconds of spinning wheel kick at the very beginning. Stalking a guy, getting him on the back foot, immediately throwing something crazy to get a guy thinking and remembering that, 'Hey, you're in the octagon with Conor McGregor, and Conor McGregor is a dominant human being.' That's what he's trying to establish at the very beginning.

"All those doubts and fears that you had leading up to this thing because I threw a bunch of venom at you in the pre-fight talks, now you're stuck in the octagon with me, and now here comes some crazy stuff. Conor always starts a fight like that. So to those who say, 'Why would he do that?' Well, he did it because he always does that."

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