After losing the fight to Charles Oliveira at the co-main event of UFC 309, Michael Chandler has been facing quite a bit of heat from the fighting community. Why? Well, Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier claimed that his punches caught the Brazilian star in the back of his head during their commentary. On top of that, there were instances where it seemed like the former Bellator FC champ was grabbing onto the fence. Agitated by this, Chandler revealed that it was nothing but a misinterpretation of the rules. 

Talking to Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour’, ‘Iron’ revealed why he had a sour taste in his mouth following the fight. He said, “I mean, a little bit of the commentary when it comes to, you know, some of the stuff that they were saying. The misinterpretation of what the back of the head is by the unified rules of mixed martial arts. The misinterpretation of what cage grabbing is. And a couple of different things.” Nevertheless, he claimed that it was all in the past. Being an honest man, the narrative that was painted at UFC 309 didn’t appeal to him. 

The #7 lightweight contender continued, “I’m not gonna say that people couldn’t look at it and splice it and look at it under a fine-toothed comb and a magnifying glass.” He pointed out that as per the unified rules of MMA, the back of the head comprised a 2-inch strip that ran down from the crown, through the back to the neck. Chandler did seem sure that his strikes did not land in that 2-inch strip of Oliveira’s head. 

Chandler continued, “And if you watched 90% of the shots, at least, most of them, almost all of them, were at least, where I was aiming, all of them, my hand, my fists, were catching the ear. So, if you’re catching the ear. That is not the back of the head. And actually, the back of the head is not really, you and I what you and I call the back of the head is not what the actual definition of the back of the head is. That two-inch strip down the back of the head. And a referee who was within two feet away never said one thing about it. And then you got commentators who were 35 feet away, saying it’s the back of the head.”

As the conversation between Helwani and Chandler found its way to IG, the fighting community took to the comments section and bashed the lightweight fighter. Despite trying to clear out the confusion, the fight fans branded him as a “dirty fighter’. 

Fight fans were not happy with Michael Chandler’s explanation 

Following the fight, Charles Oliveira disclosed how disappointed he was because of Michael Chandler’s illegal shots. He hoped for the referee to intervene, but that never happened. One of the fans took note of the eye pokes. The comment read, “Dude clearly is a dirty fighter [laughing emojis] and he poked him in the eyes before he had him down that first time.” Another fan wrote, “What a dirty fighter.”

Some fans decided to list out all the illegal acts that Chandler did at UFC 309. The list included fence grabs, eye pokes, and of course, shots to the back of the head. One fan wrote, “Brother you eye poked like three times, you literally grabbed the fence multiple times lmfao and ya took like 5-10 back to the head shots on Charles bros CTE making him forget.” Meanwhile, another fan commented, “Chandler eye poked, cage grabbed, and almost finished Charles with back of the head ground & pound. A better ref would’ve taken a point.”

The fight fans simply weren’t ready to accept what the former Bellator champ had to say. Some even asked him to own his mistakes. One comment read, “Just own it and shut up.” Another fan dissed Chandler and claimed that they clearly saw what happened at the MSG Arena. The fan commented, “Chandler thinks we are blind.” Another fan wrote, “Then maybe don’t do hit him in the back of the head [laughing emojis] like we all saw it bruh.”

The MMA community didn’t forget the backward slams in the 5th round. When ‘Do Bronx’ took control of Chandler’s back in the final round, ‘Iron Mike’ decided to have some fun. He stood up and let himself fall on his back, slamming Oliveira in the process. While many burst out laughing at the scenes, many criticized this move. But as Chandler said, it’s all water under the bridge now. 

What do you think of Chandler’s explanation? Do you think ‘Iron’ should have a rematch against Oliveira for a trilogy to fix his mistakes? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.