Dustin poirier added an extra dimension to his fight against Michael Chandler at UFC 281, by ending the fight in the third round with a rear-naked choke. He had some more thoughts after the fight was over.
The lightweights were caught by Cameras during a verbal argument just seconds after Poirier had secured his submission. Chandler refused to repeat the conversation in the cage but Poirier was not afraid of revealing details at their post-fight press conference.
” I told him that this was my home,” Poirier stated. That’s all I said to him. ‘This is my house.’ That’s it.
“And I told him he’s a dirty motherf*****, too, for putting his fingers in my mouth and blowing his nose. It’s all good.”
During his initial post-fight speech in the cage, Poirier said Chandler’s fingers were in his mouth as Chandler attempted to secure a rear-naked choke during a grappling exchange in the second round.
Chandler later acknowledged that happened, though he denied that it was done intentionally. He also addressed another foul after he was hitting the back of Poirier’s head with hammerfists on the ground, which earned him a warning from the referee.
“I will be honest and say that his mouth was wide open. My hand got inside and touched his mouthpiece,” Chandler stated. He bit it, and I tried to get it out. It wasn’t as though I was trying to pull it out, and he was biting it and I couldn’t get it out. The angle was not the problem. I mean you’re getting pushed up against the cage.
“Then when Dan Miragliotta was saying I was hitting him in the back of the head, I’ll have to go back and watch it to be honest with you but I know I was catching his ear, or at least in my mind I was catching his ear. So we had that kind of conversation. You all know I’m not a cheater. This game is my favorite. I don’t cheat.”
Poirier obviously didn’t agree with that assessment.
“It was definitely intentional,” Poirier said. “That’s just fighting.”
Later in the fight, Chandler could be seen blowing his nostrils and spraying blood onto Poirier. Although he didn’t deny it, the former Bellator lightweight champion assured that he wasn’t trying to send a disgusting message.
Chandler claimed that he wasn’t trying to clean his airways because Poirier had mangled Chandler’s nose during the second round. This caused a buildup blood.
“I have a rocket in my nose to stop it bleeding,” Chandler said. “If I wanted to breathe, that blood needed to come out. It wasn’t something malicious or strange, but it felt like someone was saying, “Sorry, you’re still down there. But I didn’t make gravity .”
It seems the entire exchange left a bad taste in Chandler’s mouth, because he wasn’t all that happy with how Poirier conducted himself after the fight.
” I did go there, and I am a man who keeps his word,” Chandler stated. “I said win, lose or draw, I would shake his hand, and be respectful after. Something was said and I didn’t really like it so we’re still friends/enemies/whatever we are.
” It wasn’t as smooth in victory as it would have been. Do not expect the best from others .”
Based on his reactions, it seems that Poirier doesn’t lose any sleep about the situation and is just as anxious to put Chandler behind him once and for all.
“It is over,” Poirier stated. “It’s whatever.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/11/13/23455923/dustin-poirier-calls-michael-chandler-dirty-motherf-multiple-fouls-chandler-says-im-not-a-cheater?rand=96749
