Dustin Poirier isn’t letting Michael Chandler off the hook as he has once more branded him a ‘cheater’ in a recent statement.
Poirier and Chandler met in the cage at UFC 281 in 2022. They engaged in a bloody war that saw Poirier submit Chandler with a rear-naked choke in the third round. The fight had momentum swings in both fighter’s favor, but the animosity didn’t end at the final bell, where Poirier and Chandler appeared to trade barbs.
‘The Diamond’ maintained that ‘Iron Mike’ was a dirty fighter, and he still upholds this sentiment.
‘He’s fake’ … Dustin Poirier blasts ‘cheater’ Michael Chandler
Speaking on Outta Pocket with RGIII, Poirier revealed the nasty details of his fight with Chandler. The Louisiana fighter couldn’t conceal his contempt for his former opponent.
“With my personal experience, he’s fake, man,” Poirier remarked. “. . . And he’s a cheater! I could go on for days, I get so amped up about this. He does all sorts of stuff, man. Blows the blood in my eyes after I break his nose – that’s cool I’ve done that before, I admitted it after.
“And then Chandler, I brought it up, and he said he didn’t do it! Like just admit it, bro, you’re so fake. Then he stuck his fingers in my mouth to lift my neck up for a rear-naked choke, right? . . . Bro, I bite his fingers so hard. . . . If I didn’t have a mouthguard on my top teeth [I might have bitten his fingers off.]”
Since their fight, Poirier has gone 1-2 in the Octagon, while Chandler is winless.
Michael Chandler bending the rules in his UFC fights
Chandler’s fouls aren’t relegated to his fight with Poirier; the Missouri wrestler was guilty of some egregious moments in his other UFC contests.
Against Justin Gaethje at UFC 288, Chandler swiped at Gaethje’s eyes following a right hand. Referee Mike Beltran called a stop to the action but almost immediately resumed it. Gaethje was fuming with Beltran’s decision after the fight.
Against Poirier, Chandler was guilty of the fish hooking, as mentioned earlier, and blowing bloody snot in Poirier’s face, the latter of which is considered unsportsmanlike conduct in the Unified Rules of MMA. He also pawed at Poirier’s lead hand and face with outstretched fingers, which is another foul.
In his UFC 309 rematch with Charles Oliveira, Chandler held onto the top of the cage to alter the result of a takedown. In the fifth round, after landing a good right hand, Chandler framed off Oliveira’s face with fingers outstretched and eye poked Oliveira. Moments later, he landed many strikes to the back of Oliveira’s head and almost secured a TKO finish despite referee Keith Peterson standing feet away.