Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler delivered an action packed three rounder on the main card of UFC 281.
While either competitor had his moments, Chandler’s striking success was perhaps overshadowed with his ‘dirty’ antics.
Chandler has been accused of several fouls. First there was the fish hooking – which is a certified foul and one of the rare moves that you can’t do in MMA.
Then there was the glove grabbing – which is also a big nono in MMA even though UFC isn’t really penalizing it appropriately.
Finally there was the strikes to the back of the head – which are and should be enough to disqualify Chandler but Miragliotta seemed asleep on the job. After all there’s nothing to gain from stopping the action as long as the athletes pretend to even half obey the rules.
And finally there was a problematic moment during which Chandler had blown his blood stricken snotty nose on Poirier.
Poirier wasn’t amused about any of these and had words with both Chandler and Miragliotta during the winner announcement in the octagon.
Despite losing, Michael Chandler appeared at the press conference and denied there was any malicious intent behind any of the moves he pulled he even went so far as to blame gravity for the nose incident.Â
MMA media might’ve bought it but Dustin Poirier sure didn’t. At his press conference he addressed Chandler’s comments and debunked the narrative that Chandler was genuine.
Media questioned Poirier if he would reveal what was said in the cage since Chandler refused to:
“You know, because we saw you speak afterwards. He said, look, I’m not going to tell you what was said. That’s between two men. It was like but it wasn’t as pleasant as I thought it would be. So, I mean, when you guys spoke, can you reveal like what was said.”
“Told him this is my house. That’s what I told him. I said, this is my house. You know, that’s it. And I told him he’s a dirty motherf***er, too, for putting his finger, for putting his fingers in my mouth and blowing his nose. And, you know.”
Another journalist asked:
“You mentioned what you said after the fight, but it looked like you were talking to him in there, too, maybe even after the round where you also kind of calling him out on the fishhooks and everything ?”
“I was telling him he was dirty. ”
Poirier was then told by media that Chandler had blamed gravity for the nose snot incident – which Poirier heartily dismissed:
“When Michael was here earlier, he did say he kind of apologized, getting the finger, said it was unintentional, what have you…”
“Nah” – Poirier cut the question short clearly seeing malicious intent. He added “Fighting, you know, it’s just fight.”