Dustin Poirier accused Michael Chandler of illegally 'fish-hooking' his mouth during their fight at UFC 281
Former interim lightweight champion Poirier tapped out Chandler in the third round of their action-packed fight at Madison Square Garden in New York this past weekend. 'Iron Mike' was getting the better of the early exchanges and came close to submitting Poirier in the opening stanza, but 'The Diamond' showed off his superior boxing before tapping out Chandler with a rear-naked choke.
In his post-fight interview, Poirier accused Chandler of trying to put his fingers in his mouth whilst attempting a submission in the first round. The illegal move, known as 'fish-hooking', is banned in MMA but it went unnoticed by referee Dan Miragliotta due to the position both fighters were in.
"He put his fingers in my mouth to try and lift my neck to get a rear naked choke," Poirier said. "I was like 'come on dude!' The referee told him something but it didn't change the fact that he had the position. Of course [I was in trouble], over against the wall I couldn't see what he was throwing."
Chandler responded to the accusation during the post-fight press conference, insisting he was trying to remove his fingers from Poirier's mouth but his opponent made it hard by biting down. "I will admit, his mouth was open and my hand went inside of there and was on his mouthpiece. He bit down, I was trying to pull it out. It wasn't as though I was trying to pull it out and he was biting it and I couldn't get it out. It was more just the angle," Chandler said.
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Poirier shook Chandler's hand after the fight despite being unhappy about him using the illegal move, regardless of the latter insisting it wasn't intentional. The pair engaged in a tense back-and-forth leading up to the clash and Chandler revealed that he wasn't happy with something Poirier said to him after the fight, stating he would have liked his rival to be more gracious in victory.
"I'm not going to say what was said, I'm not here to put that out there. It's between him and I. Win lose or draw, I said I would shake his hand but something was said and I didn't really like it. We're still friends, enemies or whatever we are. He wasn't as graceful in victory as I would have been, or as I would have liked," Chandler added.
