‘You All Know I’m Not A Cheater’

The Poirier vs. Chandler fight at UFC 281 ended with more bad blood as Dustin accused Michael of being a ‘dirty motherf—er.’

Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler was an undeniable banger that more than deserved its place as Fight of the Night at UFC 281. The two lightweights left it all in the cage, with Poirier walking away the victor after submitting Chandler two minutes into the third round (watch the highlights here).

But “The Diamond” was uncharacteristically upset following the win, and that’s because he feels like Michael Chandler fought dirty during the bout. There were iffy back-of-the-head punches on the ground, undeniable fish hooking, and at one point Chandler blew his bloody nose on Poirier’s face, covering him with blood. During the post-fight press conference, Dustin laid out his grievances with “Iron Mike.”

“I told him this is my house, that’s what I told him,” Poirier said. “ said ‘This is my house.’ That’s it. And I told him he is a dirty motherf—r too. For putting his fingers in my mouth and blowing his nose. It’s all good. It’s over, I don’t hold — it’s whatever.”

Poirier didn’t even wait for the win to relay his complaints to Chandler. He was doing it during the fight as well.

“I was telling him he was dirty, yeah.”

For his part, Michael Chandler denied intentionally cheating and called the fish hook an accident.

“Yes, I will admit, I will admit yes, his mouth was open and my hand went inside of there and was on his mouthpiece,” Chandler said when he spoke with reporters following UFC 281. “He bit down, I was trying to pull 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. It was more just the angle. I mean, you’re getting pushed up against the cage.”

“And then the other thing, 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. I love this game. I don’t cheat.”

As for the blood thing?

“If I wanted to breathe, that blood needed to come out,” Chandler said. “So it wasn’t a malicious, weird thing, but it was definitely like a, ‘Sorry you’re down there, but I didn’t create gravity.’”

When reporters relayed his explanation to Poirier, “The Diamond” shook his head.

“It was definitely intentional,” Poirier insisted.

Suffice to say, we don’t think Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier will be exchanging Christmas cards this year.