Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira went to war in their rematch at UFC 309 last November. An insanely entertaining fight, their action-filled bout was rightfully adjudged the Fight of the Night at the Madison Square Garden card. In the end, Oliveira, who dominated most of the fight, walked away with a well-deserved unanimous decision victory, but the warrior spirit Chandler displayed in the fight was commendable.

The fifth round, of course, was the best in the entire fight. The American almost knocked out ‘Do Bronx’. But, the latter recovered very well and took Chandler to the ground again. And ‘Iron’ living up to his reputation of being an incredibly entertaining fighter, backpack powerbombed Oliveira twice in the closing seconds of the fifth and final round, electrifying the crowd.

However, ‘Iron’ is a bit upset at Oliveira, not for beating him, but for a much stranger reason.

“To then have the fight go the way that it is, even though, you know it was a good fight, great fight, Fight of the Night. Donald Trump, Kid Rock, Elon Musk, his entire cabinet, everybody on their feet- 20,000 people standing ovation in Madison Square Garden. And with all due respect to Charles, it wasn’t him who made that fight exciting,” Chandler declared in a recent video on his official YouTube channel.

In fact, Chandler feels that he was the one doing all the heavy lifting of entertaining the fans in the fight, and felt Oliveira was actively working against this goal.

“If anything, he was trying to make the fight boring and trying to take me down and hold me. And I was fighting, getting back up and then almost finished him in the fifth round. And then the back slams at the end, you know. People felt something, that’s for sure,” the former Bellator champion added.

Of course, this is perhaps a bit unfair on ‘Do Bronx’. After all, the Brazilian former champ is a grappler first and foremost. And while fans do enjoy wild striking sessions much more than ground exchanges, Oliveira cannot be expected to change his entire fighting style and not use his biggest strength in such a big fight. However, the worst part for Chandler during the fight was the emotional toll it took on him.

Why UFC 309 was so traumatic for Michael Chandler

Michael Chandler, when he joined the UFC, was clear- he didn’t care about winning a title. No. His entire goal in the promotion is to put on exciting fights. And that he did against Oliveira at UFC 309. But at great cost to his health and well-being. ‘Iron’ has said that the fight was the most painful of his career so far, revealing that he even urinated blood after it.

However, it seems that the reason for the pain wasn’t just the physical punishment he took. What compounded his hurt was the fact that he was positively, absolutely sure he would beat ‘Do Bronx’.

“I think my body hurt from the sheer letdown of truly 100% unashamedly believing in myself. So high, more than I’ve ever experienced in my entire life… And it’s just, you know, the pain I was going through was just as much I think emotional as it was physical,” Chandler added.

Of course, a victory for ‘Iron’ would have made him a title contender straightaway. Instead, he is now 1-4 in his last fight, and the 38-year-old may well retire without getting another title shot. What do you think about Michael Chandler’s comments about Oliveira at their UFC 309 clash?