‘My Fist Was Catching The Ear’

Despite mounting criticizm following his UFC 309 loss, Michael Chandler has denied claims he hit Charles Oliveira with numerous illegal rabbit punches during a fifth round scamble in their co-headliner at Madison Square Garden.

Chandler, who retains the number seven rank at the lightweight limit, co-headlined UFC 309 earlier this month in New York, taking on former undisputed champion and two-time foe, Oliveira over the course of five rounds in a high-stakes title eliminator rematch.

And dropping an eventual unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 49-45) loss to the Sao Paulo veteran, Chandler drew criticizm from pundits and fans alike — after appearing to land numerous punches to the back of his opponent’s head — to which he has vehemently denied.

Michael Chandler defends against critics of performance against Charles Oliveira

“I’m not very happy about it, but that’s all part of it… I’m not going to say I didn’t do anything wrong, okay?” Michael Chandler told Ariel Helwani for Uncrowned. “I’m not going to say that people couldn’t look at it and splice it and look at it under a fine tooth comb and a magnifying glass.

But the unified rules of mixed martial arts say that there is a line drawn from the crown of the head down to the back of the head, one-inch variance on either side,” Michael Chandler explained. So you’re talking about a two-inch area on the back of someone’s head that is considered the back of the head. If you watch 90 per cent 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.

And joking following the pairing how he technically tapped out to the Brazilian in the final stages of the rematch in an embrace — only for referee, Keith Peterson to let it go unnoticed, Chandler claimed he received no warning from the official for his strikes to Oliveira — despite the scrutiny surrounding them.

“A referee who was within two feet away never said one thing about it. Then you’ve got commentators who were 35-feet away saying it’s the back of the head and you’ve got other people saying it was back of the head.”