“Bit the sh*t out of his finger” – Dustin Poirier reveals details of the fish hooking incident with ‘nasty motherfu**er’ Michael Chandler
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Dustin Poirier (R, bottom) reveals details of the ''fish-hooking'' incident with Michael Chandler (R, on top) at UFC 281
UFC 281 was a blockbuster event, from start to finish – especially the main card, where lightweight giants Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier fought against each other.
In the first round, Michael Chandler had Dustin Poirier quite hurt on his feet, before the Louisianan rallied back, dropped Chandler late into the round, and almost finished him in the pocket. The second round was a different affair – Chandler controlled much of the round on the canvas, with Joe Rogan even saying the round could be 10-8 in favour of the 36 year old. Hence, going into the last round, Poirier needed a finish, in all honesty.
And a finish it was that he got. Latching onto Chandler’s back, Poirier brought out one of the tightest rear naked chokes, to which the Sanford MMA trainee was nothing but a sitting duck. However, in the second round, an incident transpired which happened to catch the fans’ and experts’ eyes. At the end of the fight, Poirier accused Chandler of fish-hooking him, which on viewing the video replay, turned out to be true.
Speaking about it with Ariel Helwani, Poirier said, “Yeah [he did that on purpose]. It doesn’t hurt, but the leverage you get on the grip, he had his fingers on my top teeth, where my mouth guard is, so he kind of pulled, tried to get my neck up to lock in the choke… I bit the sh*t out of his finger… he didn’t even try to pull it out when I bit.”
Dustin Poirier accuses Michael Chandler of even more unsportsmanlike behavior, in light of the fish-hooking incident
Although Michael Chandler has since refuted the accusations of being a cheat, fight fans have started to rally against him as video evidence against Chandler proves his ‘not a cheater’ claims might be standing on rocky grounds.
However, this was not the only thing that Dustin Poirier accused Michael Chandler of. Speaking about another incident with Helwani, he said, “I don’t care what the f*** the guy says. He 100% did… I can hear him blow his nose hard, he did it hard… I called him a ‘nasty motherfucker.’”
The problem with this was not the action of blowing one’s nose on an opponent itself, according to Poirier, but Chandler ‘lying about it.’ While it may be disgusting for fans to think about the incident, one must remember that in this gladiatorial sport, where two people are fighting for bread, blowing someone’s nose on the other becomes a minor issue. Dustin Poirier himself admitted that he had done it against Joseph Duffy in 2016.
The interview with Ariel Helwani happened a few hours back, with it looking likely that Poirier was face-timing the journalist from an airport. However, even in the moments after the fight, Dustin Poirier seemed to be writhing in anger – usually, after a fight, both fighters try and forget the beef leading into the fight, as three or five rounds against one another is a tough ask, and hence, it commands respect.
Owing to the fish-hooking accusation, Poirier was not ready to forgive Chandler, and even called him ‘Muscle Milk Mike‘. That being said, it is likely that, as time passes, the two will move on from the beef. Additionally, it might also be the case that they find themselves staring at each other in the octagon at some point in the future, once again.
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Udayan Mukherjee
(382 Articles Published)