Chelsea Chandler Picks Nunes to Beat Harrison

Bantamweight Chelsea Chandler has dealt with the same type of neck injury as Kayla Harrison, but that gives her no warmth toward the women's bantamweight champion. Chandler (8-4) won by submission at UFC Edmonton on Saturday, and backstage she was asked about the coming title fight between Harrison and Amanda Nunes. Harrison is returning from injury, Nunes from retirement.

Chandler said she had not paid much attention. In her view, Harrison will retire after this fight, and Nunes is already retired. "So it's kind of like a match-up for the fans, but at the end of the day, it doesn't really mean anything for the rankings, or for anybody else in the top 10, because they're both gone after this," she told reporters, including Cageside Press.

A clear pick

Her prediction was short. "I'm going to go with Nunes, I hope she wins," Chandler said, adding that she would like to see Harrison sent packing.

She made no secret of the reason. "I don't like her. There's been a little bit of back-and-forth in the past, and I don't like her," Chandler said. Asked whether the exchange happened online, she answered: "It was a while back. Whatever. She's already retired, so I really don't give a sh*t."

A warm night in Edmonton

Chandler was upbeat after the win. She is an American fighting in Canada, but she has Canadian roots, and the Edmonton crowd welcomed her. She posed for many selfies as she walked out of the octagon.

The commission had warned her backstage about unruly fans, and one commissioner told her he had once been punched while protecting a fighter. She said she wondered what she would be walking into, yet the fans were cordial. Many of her fights had been at the Apex, she said, and this was different. "There were people shaking my hand on the way out, and I was just grabbing all this energy."

She thinks giving fans that time matters: "at the end of the day, they're the ones supporting you."

Source: Cageside Press