’15 shots to the ear’… Michael Chandler addresses most controversial moment of rematch with Charles Oliveira
Michael Chandler insists he didn’t land any illegal shots at UFC 309.
‘Iron Mike’ was four rounds down in his rematch with Charles Olveira when he almost pulled off a sensational come-from-behind victory in the final few minutes of their wild fight at Madison Square Garden in New York last weekend.
The former three-time Bellator lightweight champion hurt ‘Do Brox’ before bashing him with nasty ground strikes when their fight went to the mat.
Oliveira survived the onslaught and ultimately finished the fight on his opponent’s back, despite Michael Chandler trying everything he could to get the Brazilian submission specialist off.
Michael Chandler reflects on almost finishing Charles Oliveira
Joe Rogan, Daniel Cormier, and Jon Anik, who were on commentary duty at UFC 309, immediately called out Chandler for landing several shots to the back of the head as he tried to finish Oliveira.
Fans at home agreed with their assessment of the situation, but the man himself insists they all landed on Oliveira’s ear and were therefore completely legal.
“The referee was right there, dude,” Chandler told Bussin’ With The Boys.
“I mean, he took like 15 shots to the ear. 15! And I was like, ‘Is this referee gonna step in, dude?’
“The hard part is there’s kind of an unspoken rule. At this point, it’s gotta be pretty definitive because I would want the exact same thing. If I was up three rounds or four rounds to one or none, and Charles Oliveira clipped me, I would want the referee to not step in unless it’s like a life-or-death situation because I’m up. Just let me survive and I win the fight.
“This is where my humility comes in, where I’m like, ‘Hey, this is the sport, and this is the way things are supposed to be’. I completely get it.
“If it was a different fight, I think Keith Peterson steps in and pulls me off of him after he takes those 15, maybe 20, shots. But he’s already up a couple of rounds there and it’s kind of an unspoken rule, ‘Let this guy survive unless I need to save him’.
“But he was in a bad spot. I remember when he turned over, he looked at me and for some reason his eyes were red. They were bloodshot and he was looking at me, but he wasn’t really looking at me. Cross-eyed and all jacked up.”
Charles Oliveira vents frustration at illegal moves
Oliveira felt he was the victim of several serious rule breaks at UFC 309.
The former UFC lightweight champion didn’t want to kick Chandler while he was down, but he did call out his rival for cheating and the referee for allowing it to happen.
Oliveira said: “I’m not here to criticize but I want to tell you something, there were a lot of blows to the back of the head, a lot of fence grabbing, there was also some eye-pokes and I was telling him [the referee] what was going on.
“I kept calling for his attention and nothing would happen. I’d hoped that he would intervene, but nothing happened, so I’m not here to criticize.”
In a separate interview with Full Send MMA, Oliveira insisted that he had no hard feelings against Chandler, who already had somewhat of a reputation for bending the rules with eye-pokes, fence grabs, and fish-hooking.
He added: “A great name, a great champion, one of the toughest guys I’ve ever fought in here, so he deserves all the respect in the world…
“A lot of shots to the back of the head, [there were] some eye-pokes in there but you know what, that’s part of it and I’m not going to criticize it.”
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