One of the most fun rivalries that transformed into an incredible fight was between Dustin Poirier and Michael Chandler. From the get-go, ‘The Diamond’ expressed his disdain for ‘Iron’ Mike. And after their fight, which Poirier won by submission in 2022, there’s no love lost. Poirier thinks Chandler is “fake” and a “cheater”. A cheater because the former interim UFC champ feels that ‘Iron’ cheated by sticking “his fingers in my mouth to lift my neck up for a rear-naked choke”. 

Fake, because the Louisiana native thinks his rival has different faces—one for when he’s in front of you, and one when he’s talking thrash about you when you’re not around. Furthermore, the Louisianan has claimed that the former Bellator champion blew “the blood in my eyes after I break his nose” and then when he asked about it after the fight, “he said he didn’t do it.”

But verbose UFC analyst and former title contender Chael Sonnen thinks that Poirier has the wrong impression of Chandler. “I feel like Chandler’s really misunderstood, quite frankly. But Chandler greatly embraced the entertainment style of the sport and then he, like anybody else, didn’t know if he’d be good at it, he didn’t know if you guys would want to hear, he didn’t know if he’s just going to go out and make a fool of himself or it’s going to be something cool,” Sonnen began in a video posted on his official YouTube handle.

Indeed, Michael Chandler has explicitly said that he doesn’t care about winning titles. No. What he wants to do is have fun fights, which he has managed to do very well. In fact, even Poirier has named him one of the fighters he loves to watch because of how entertaining ‘Iron’ is.

“He doesn’t know. And there was some guys that he just thought, you know, he admired, he watched their work. And Dustin Poirier was one of those guys and so Chandler had just approached him and told him, ‘Hey by the way I’m really a fan of yours, you know. You do such a great job,'” Uncle Chael’ added.

Indeed, Chandler has praised Poirier, calling ‘The Diamond’ a “great guy”, a “legend”, and a “first ballot hall of famer” in a recent X post. “But then Chandler would do interviews and he would go back into that entertainment side. But some guys came away thinking Chandler was fake,” the UFC analyst pointed out.

Sonnen, of course, himself ’embraced the entertainment’ side of the sport as a marketing tool for the fans’ benefit. ‘Uncle Chael’, one of the two greatest talkers in the history of the sport, used to talk thrash to his opponents before their fights as part of his bad guy schtick, when in fact, he was actually very respectful of them when the cameras were not rolling. And this is the game that Sonnen thinks Chandler is playing, and Poirier has misread the whole situation.

“And that’s where I say he’s misunderstood. Like no, no it’s just the opposite– he’s not fake at all. That’s why he came up and let you know, ‘Yeah, here’s what I’m doing and here’s a little bit of what I’m going for. But don’t take it maybe as personal as it says.’ That’s actually what makes it so sincere and not fake. That’s where the misunderstanding comes from. That’s between them, I don’t I don’t want to make peace between Chandler and Poirier—I want to make war,” Sonnen concluded. But  Chandler, on the other hand, is not bothered at all with Poirier calling him fake and a cheater.

Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier’s feud may open door to Louisiana mega-clash

“I don’t [respond]. I don’t lose a wink of sleep thinking about Dustin Poirier and how he thinks about me. Unfortunately I live rent-free in his head, and he does lose sleep over me. I don’t think about him. When you ask ‘What do you think about it?’, I don’t. It’s no big deal, and we’ll keep on movin’ on. Not everybody is going to like you, and that’s just fine by me,” Chandler said on the Zach Gelb Show.

And it seems that is that. Maybe, just maybe, it is better that they don’t reconcile. After all, Poirier is close to retiring. ‘The Diamond’, in fact, is in talks with the UFC to have his last fight in New Orleans, Louisiana, where he started his MMA career, which is close to his hometown of Lafayette. And since Poirier needs an opponent for that fight, who better than the man he has a very public and very entertaining feud with?

At least that is what Chael Sonnen seems to be thinking with his “I want to make war” comments. What do you think about ‘Uncle Chael’s thoughts on Poirer’s comments about Chandler?