David Rickels thinks he probably was at a buffet eating lo mein and crab rangoon when he got the call to fight lightweight champ Michael Chandler at Bellator 97. He knows he was 205 pounds. Rickels isn’t big on living in the past or the future, but the present of that moment sticks in his memory. “Initial shock factor was about a nine,” he told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio). A winner in Bellator’s Season 8 lightweight tournament, Rickels (14-1 MMA, 8-1 BFC) stepped in for an injured Dave Jansen to meet Chandler (11-0 MMA, 8-0 BFC) on July 31 at Santa Ana Star Center in New Mexico. The title fight headlines the event’s main card on Spike following prelims on Spike.com
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