UFC lightweight contender, Michael Chandler, pushed back against former interim lightweight champion, Dustin Poirier's claims that he cheated during their fight this past weekend.
Chandler spoke with reporters at the UFC 281 post-fight press conference on Saturday night following his third-round submission loss to Poirier and responded to the latter accusing him of fish-hooking his mouth during a rear naked choke attempt, as well as that Chandler intentionally blew blood from his nose on him.
“I got a rocket up my nose right now to stop it from bleeding,” Chandler said (h/t MMA Fighting). “If I wanted to breathe, that blood needed to come out. 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.’ Yes, I will admit his mouth was open and my hand went inside of there and was on his mouthpiece. He bit down, I was trying to pull it out. It wasn’t as though I was trying to pull it out; 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. 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. I love this game. I don’t cheat.”
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