Chandler Cole: CFFC 80 is simply next stop as 'The Cole Train' heads to the UFC
Chandler Cole remembers well the moment he decided he wanted to be a fighter.
"I went to an MMA show – back when I was younger, they used to have them here," Cole said. "This guy fought, and after he fought, he taunted a bit. He did a little show-off thing. It rubbed me the wrong way, and I was only 17 at the time. This guy was like 30. I called the promoter, and I told him, 'I want to fight that guy.'"
Weighing about 170 pounds at the time, Cole didn't get the matchup he wanted, with an opponent who was closer to 210. But the promoter liked his attitude and matched Cole up with someone else, instead.
"They sent me a picture of the dude, and I showed my uncle," Cole recalled. "My uncle was like, 'Chandler, this dude can fight.' I was like 'Now how can you tell that from a picture?' He said, 'Well, he's ugly. Everyone that's ugly can fight. They got nothing else going for them.'
"Then I was scared. Here I am fighting this grown man. I was terrified, but that's when I realized that's what I wanted to do."
Cole grew up as a wrestler in a tiny Virginia town of 2,000 people, but that's about where his MMA knowledge base ended. Still, he was hooked, and he began chasing a dream.
"My coaches have been fighting forever, but I wouldn't call it a big gym," Cole said. "I live in southwestern Virginia, on the Kentucky and Tennessee border, at the very end of it, out in the woods. I went out to California last year and trained, and they had 500 members. My gym, it's like 15 or 20 guys, but all of us are pro. All of us train all the time. They all have something special about them.
"We're small, but you come in there, and you know you're going to get work. I was just a wrestler, but I was like, 'Man, I want to train all of it.' They welcomed me in one punch at a time."
After a decorated amateur career, Cole turned pro in 2016 and has since put together an impressive start to his run, picking up five wins – all by stoppage – against just one defeat.
Cole also balances his training with a full-time job at a maximum security prison, helping guard "the worst of the worst," he says, while also serving as both a football and a wrestling coach in Coeburn, where he was born and raised.
"This sounds crazy, but ever since I was a kid, I told people I was meant to do something big," Cole said. "I think one of my ways of doing that is giving back to my community and coaching, because I love being around the kids. If I tell them 'Hey, you can do something,' I want to lead by example, not just tell them that and them be like, 'Well what has he ever done?' So that's one thing that motivates me, is just lead by example. Don't just preach what you're saying, but actually put the work in and stuff, and I'm excited. They've seen me do this for camp the last few weeks. They've seen the work I put in. It definitely is something."
Tonight, Cole (5-1) gets a chance to take a big step forward in his career, when he takes on fellow heavyweight Keith Bell (10-9-1) on Cage Fury Fighting Championship's UFC FIGHT PASS-streamed event, "CFFC 80: Fight for the Troops" at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia.
At just 24, Cole takes on the most experienced opponent of his career to date, and he said the challenge at hand – not to mention the opportunity – has proven to be quite the motivator.
"After my last fight, I said, 'I want something pretty big,'" Cole said. "I think this is in the right direction. Keith has fought in Bellator. He's fought on AXS TV. He's been around a long time – 20 fights. He's been pro as long as I've been fighting. Back when I was in high school, he was pro.
"To me, this is one of those moments where it's like a passing of the torch, or he's going to slow down 'The Cole Train.' It excites me. It really does excite me, so that's why my training camp has been as good as it's been. I've been motivated. He's going to get the best version of Chandler Cole we've seen, for sure."
A victory could mean big things for Cole. After all, UFC officials will certainly be paying attention to the card since developmental athlete William Knight will also be competing at the event.
Cole said that addition made things a bit more interesting for him, as well.
"Knight is a tremendous fighter, and I saw where he got added to the card," Cole said. "I saw it after I signed my contract, and I was like, 'Man, I wonder who's going to watch this?' You sit there and think like – now he may not, but I'm like, 'I wonder if Dana White is going to watch?'
"Anytime I perform, I try to do it to the best of my abilities because everybody knows somebody else. If one person sees me and tells their friend, it works its way up the ladder."
Cole seems to be working his way up the ladder, as well. In the heavyweight division, talent is at a premium, and a couple good showings can get you noticed by the sport's biggest promotions.
Cole hopes his moment comes tonight.
"This fight will tell me where I stand as far as where my skills are," Cole said. "Keith fought Blagoy Ivanov, and he came out and lit him up, but then he gassed, and Blagoy took him down and choked him out, so my thing is, if I come out and I fight this cat, and he was giving the work to Blagoy, who's in the UFC right now, where does that put me as far as just getting my way in there? I always think of things like that.
"Eventually, I'm going to be in the UFC, too. It's just a matter of time."