Michael Chandler admits that the narrative surrounding him that he’s a cheater in the UFC is a bit tough to swallow, but he knows who he is when he looks in the mirror.
Chandler is set to compete this Saturday in the five-round co-main event of UFC 314 when he faces Paddy Pimblett in Miami. The former Bellator champion has heard the cheating accusations following his Madison Square Garden losses to Dustin Poirier and, most recently, Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.
Ahead of the massive lightweight bout, Chandler was asked about the accusations.
“I mean, the narrative is tough, man,” Chandler told MMA Fighting. “People don’t really know me. Unless you’re in my inner circle, you don’t know who I truly am outside of [being] in front of the camera. People have their sneaky suspicions that I play nice in front of the camera, and I’m a bad guy behind the camera. You’re always going to have those accusations, right?
“But I know who I am, and I know who I am at my core; I’m a guy who tries to do things right, tries to treat people right, do things with honor and respect. So the cheating narrative is a little tough for me, but also, it’s all part of the court of public opinion, man.”
Chandler is 2-4 in his six octagon appearances, but has picked up a bonus in five of them. “Iron” seeks his first win in nearly three years when he makes his first 2025 walk to the cage.
In his most recent outing, Chandler lost a five-round decision to Oliveira in a rematch this past November, and nearly pulled off a shocking comeback win in Round 5. Oliveira was able to outlast a barrage from Chandler — including a number of shots many believed were to the back of Oliveira’s head, although referee Keith Peterson didn’t issue any warnings.
Still, the cheating narrative returned.
“Did I grab Dustin Poirier’s mouthpiece? Yes, I did, because I thought it was his chin,” Chandler said. “I’ve already addressed that one. Things happen in a fight. Are you going to reach over and grab the cage? Are you going to get your fingers in the glove? Yeah. Those things are going to happen in a fight.
“In the last fight, Charles Oliveira dug his chin so deep into my eye socket that I thought I was going to go blind, which is illegal. It’s an eye gouge, right? He was grabbing my gloves when he was trying to choke me. These things happen when you’re inside of the cage. I would never say that Charles Oliveira is a cheater. His body is reacting and doing things without his brain’s permission. You’re in fight or flight. Things happen. So it’s a tough narrative.”
Prior to fight week, Pimblett was also asked about whether or not he believed Chandler bent the rules, saying that it’s on the referee to make a call if rules are being broken — and also referenced a recent quote from Poirier, saying he would’ve bit off Chandler’s fingers if he didn’t wear a mouthguard during their UFC 281 matchup.
Chandler appreciated Pimblett having more fun with the narrative, although, the exciting 155-pound fighter noticed not all lightweights have had the same attitude.
“I respect Paddy for not making a big deal out of it,” Chandler said. “I mean, I think it’s a sign of weakness when you start talking about a guy cheating. The most interesting one to me was Justin Gaethje. Justin Gaethje is a savage and, like, calling me a cheater. I’m like, ‘Dude, come on, man.’ It’s a little bit of a sign of weakness.
“But either way, things happen in there. The fans aren’t going to like everything that you do. Fans aren’t gonna like you 90 percent of the time ,anyway, so it doesn’t really matter. So we’ll just leave it at that. I am doing exactly what I feel necessary in the fight. The referees, if they tell me to stop, I’m going to stop. There’s a lot of things that you do inside the octagon that you don’t even really realize you’re doing and it’s the ref’s job to tell you.
“So we’ll see how these next couple of fights play out.”
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