You say Michael Chandler, we hear a symphony of violence! It is safe to say that whenever the former Bellator champion steps inside the Octagon, fireworks are certainly warranted. The same was the case with the Missouri native’s last outing when he slugged it out against former champ Charles Oliveira inside a jam-packed MSG last November. A five-round war with its fair share of highlight-reel moments! Moreover, the showman ending sequence from Chandler where he slammed the Brazilian twice on the mat proved to be the icing on the cake. However, not everything was as smooth as you would expect!

In the aftermath of that instant classic, ‘Iron’ was caught landing illegal shots at the back of Oliveira’s head. This sparked an intense debate about the fighting methods the Missouri native caters to in a fight. And it seems the ghost of that incident isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. As Chandler gears up for UFC 314 to fight Paddy Pimblett, the Liverpudlian recently joined a panel of a few other fighters during a Q&A session with the fans.

One of the questions from a person in the crowd revolved around Pimblett’s tactics to avoid getting hit in the back of his head. While he assured that the fight won’t last long, Pimblett said, “Well, it’s not gonna get to round 5. He’s gonna be finished before that.” But then again, he claimed that it’s the referee’s job to make sure that they put a stop to these illegal shots from landing on a fighter. The verbose Englishman even called the referee who officiated the UFC 309 co-main event, Keith Peterson, for failing to take swift action and for his indecisiveness in judgment.

“It’s not on me, lad. It’s on the referee. You know what I mean? The referee was quite slow in the Charles Oliveira fight and he didn’t stop him,” Paddy Pimblett added. “So, Chandler just kept hammer-fisting the back of his head. It’s on the referee.”

Well, this is not the first time Chandler’s been called out for his fight tactics because Dustin Poirier (who fought Chandler at UFC 281) also opened up about his experience of getting punched in the back of the head. ‘The Diamond’, since then, has never talked positively about the former Bellator champion. “Michael Chandler is a fake motherf—– and he’s a cheater. I could go on for days. He makes me pissed off,” Dustin Poirier stated in an interview a few years ago.

Well, the former Bellator champ had an interesting response to the claims about his cheating during the fight, and he also pointed out the referee’s role in it. Here’s what he had to say.

Michael Chandler’s reaction after being called out for illegal punches at UFC 309

Well, Michael Chandler didn’t seem to deny that there were some mistakes during the fight, and he understands that people are pointing their fingers at him. However, he mentioned the problem with the smallest of margins and he claimed to have had most of his punches near Oliveira’s ear. Also, he ended his explanation by claiming that the referee didn’t say anything while it was going down, which led him to continue.

“If you watch 90 percent of the shots, at least, most of them, almost all of them, my fist was catching the ear. If you’re catching the ear, that’s not the back of the head. Actually, what you and I would call the back of the head is not the actual definition of what it is. That two-inch strip down the back of the head,” Michael Chandler stated on the Ariel Helwani show. “A referee who was within two feet away never said one thing about it.”

Well, we have all the opinions lined up here regarding Michael Chandler’s back-of-the-head punches. What is your opinion on all of this? Let us know in the comments down below.