Las Vegas, NV – UFC featherweight Chelsea Chandler made her promotional debut in Oct. 2022, and has been out of action until this Saturday night when she’ll take on Norma Dumont at UFC Vegas 77 on Saturday night.
“The time away really gave me a lot of time to hone my skills, and not be under the stress of a fight. When you have a fight coming up, your nerves everything’s going on, and you probably are a little bit more predisposed to getting injured. I really didn’t have that much,” Chandler told reporters on Wednesday.
Chandler comes back to a tough test in UFC veteran Dumont who comes into this one on a two-fight win streak last defeating Karol Rosa by decision in April.
“I asked for the name. I never ask for an easy fight, and I think this is a tough fight, but it’s also a very winnable fight. Norma’s fought the who’s who of the division. She’s fought basically everybody. I feel like going out there and fighting her you could say is a shortcut, but it’s also a big task at hand,” she said.
“I know that I’m prepared, I see some holes in her game, and I feel like I’m going to exploit them on Saturday night.”
With former two-division champion Amanda Nunes retiring there is no current bantamweight or featherweight queen so the title is up for grabs. Chandler did offer up an unexpected name into the fray.
“There really is no bantamweight champion. I’ve been hearing that Ronda (Rousey)’s coming back. I heard she’s coming back at 45 so you never know,” Chandler said.
“If I go out there and put on the performance I plan on putting I’ll welcome her to the 45 and I think it’ll be a great fight. It has been a long time for her and things change, people get better, and I think people are over her one-trick pony arm bar. Money talks and she would bring eyes to the sport again, and I feel like her time in WWE is starting to go down. I’d like to see it.”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Chelsea Chandler above. She takes on Norma Dumont at UFC Vegas 77 on Saturday night.
