https://www.si.com/vault/1981/08/03...d-retaining-the-wba-bantamweight-championship Considering how smooth Chandler was in the ring, I was shocked to discover how little experience he had before turning pro: "In December 1975, a little more than two months after putting on the gloves for the first time, Chandler fought his entire amateur career in a single week. On Monday he knocked out his first opponent in the second round. On Friday he lost a split decision to a highly touted amateur with 75 fights behind him. "I thought I'd won," says Chandler. "I figured if I was already as good as a guy with that much experience, I'd just be wasting my time fighting amateur." So in February 1976 he turned pro."
Chandler for a short window of time...was rated "right up there" with some of the better Bantamweights.
Eye problems and lifestyle issues held him back. For awhile he was really being hyped everywhere, even having all of his fights televised, which of course is pretty rare for 118 lbs. fighters. Great natural ability, but bad luck and bad decisions sabotaged him.
Chandler had 3 or so excellent years and actually won and defended his title 9 times in this period. He packed a lot into those years. Absolutely superb fighter. I would be inclined to consider him a boxer/puncher, he was a really good all round fighter. He liked to force the action and then counterpunch off his opponents efforts. He could establish the jab when in the mood and had an excellent right hand behind it. He could fight at any range and didn't ignore the body either. Hand speed was good. Despite his skills he had a penchant for mixing it up but did it well, like everything else. When in the mode he was reasonably slippery defensively. He was one of these guys that fell off the edge suddenly. Aaron Pryor was similar. Eye problems, a shoulder requiring an injection, plenty of drugs, plenty of little wars, he had it all going on. An eye injury stopped him trying to regain the title and it may have been a good thing. Being the first American Bantam champ for 3 decades gained great exposure for the division at the time. He always wanted the tough fights too, there was no ducking or filler. The greatest shame is that the powers that be could not come together and get him and Lupe Pintor (another superb bantam) in the ring for a unifacation that would have been a "Super Fight" at the time. Pintor then moved up and was beaten by Wilfredo Gomez in a great battle. A unification with Pintor would have been a huge fight at the time and one of them (maybe even both) would have upped his historical standing considerably imo.
I think he would have beaten Pintor. Chandler was like Donald Curry in that he dominated for quite a while then was beaten out of nowhere. But, where Curry had a slow subsequent decline, Chandler never fought again.
I always favored Pintor during the time but later wasn't so sure. Pintors effort around the time vs Gomez was immense tho so i wouldn't count him out.
Pintor is underrated....gave Gomez his hardest "winning" fight at Jr. Feather (exclude the Sanchez loss).
If it wasn't for his problems, Jeff probably could have moved up to 122, and won a belt. He wouldn't have beaten Gomez, but may have given him a tougher go than Lupe did.
Jeff said he would beat Gomez and that Gomez was scared of him big time....not sure if I believe the 2nd part but I do believe the first
