Michael Chandler has admitted it is “tough” to hear fans and fighters accuse him of being a cheater, as he prepares to face Paddy Pimblett on Saturday.

Chandler was accused of intentionally throwing illegal strikes to the back of Charles Olveira’s head in November, while Dustin Poirier previously claimed that “Iron Mike” ‘fish-hooked’ him and blew blood from his nose into Poirier’s face.

‘Fish-hooking’ involves a fighter pulling their opponent’s head up by grabbing the inside of their mouth, to facilitate a choke. In any case, Poirier was the one to beat Chandler with a choke in their 2022 meeting, while Oliveira outpointed the American – having previously secured a TKO of Chandler.

“I mean, the narrative is tough, man,” Chandler, 38, 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.

“Did I grab Dustin Poirier’s mouthpiece? Yes, I did, because I thought it was his chin. 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.”

At UFC 314 on Saturday (12 April), Chandler will take on Liverpudlian lightweight Paddy Pimblett, who recently joked about his opponent’s reputation.

“I always say: ‘If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying,’” Pimblett laughed. “That’s on the ref […] The ref needs to say something to him.

“I did watch that [Chandler] fight. He does hammer fist him about 12 times to the back of the head, and he knows what he’s doing! If I was in that position and I’m Charles, I’m saying: ‘Ref, what are you doing here?’ Like, that was some bad refereeing right there.

“Obviously, I’ve seen the Poirier one as well – Poirier saying he tried to fish-hook him to get the choke and stuff like that. I’ll do the same thing as Poirier if that happens: I’ll bite his fingers, try to cut it off with my teeth.”

Now Chandler has addressed Pimblett’s take on the ‘cheater’ accusations.

“I respect Paddy for not making a big deal out of it,” said the former three-time Bellator lightweight champion, who is 2-4 in the UFC. “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.” Gaethje outpointed Chandler in 2021.

“But either way, things happen in there,” Chandler continued. “The fans aren’t going to like everything that you do. Fans aren’t gonna like you 90 per cent 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 realise 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.”

Pimblett, 30, will enter his bout against Chandler with a 6-0 UFC record. Last time out, in July, he submitted Bobby King in Manchester. Meanwhile, Chandler is seeking his first win since a front-kick knockout of Tony Ferguson in 2022.

In early 2023, it was announced that Chandler would face former dual-weight champ Conor McGregor at a later date. That date was not confirmed until spring 2024, when it was announced that the American and Irishman would clash that June. However, McGregor withdrew on two weeks’ notice due to a broken toe.

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