Chandler unhappy with ‘cheater’ reputation: ‘It’s a little tough for me’

Michael Chandler may not be the biggest cheater in the UFC, but he’s certainly the biggest cheater who denies cheating.

At this point we’ve all heard the infamous words of Tito Ortiz, “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.” They’re nearly as ubiquitous in this sport as “It is what it is.” And those two kind of go together, because when it comes to cheating, it is what it is. Despite what the rules say, you can cheat a whole bunch in an MMA fight and almost never get penalized.

That’s why you have so many fighters repeat Ortiz’s line with a wink and a laugh. Michael Chandler’s UFC 314 opponent Paddy Pimblett dropped that line when discussing Chandler’s reputation for fish hooking and punching fighters in the back of the head. He doesn’t care. Fans don’t seem to care. But Chandler certainly cares that he’s being accused of being dishonorable in the cage.

“I’m a guy who tries to do things right, tries to treat people right, do things with honor and respect,” Chandler told MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck in a new interview. “So the cheating narrative is a little tough for me.”

Chandler does this weird thing where he admits to all the illegal things he does but insists they’re just natural reactions and happenstance moments caused by the chaos of cagefighting.

“Things happen in a fight,” he declared. “Are you going to reach over and grab the cage? Are you going to get your fingers in the glove? Yeah. Those things are going to happen in a fight. In the last fight, Charles Oliveira dug his chin so deep into my eye socket that I thought I was going to go blind, which is illegal. It’s an eye gouge, right? He was grabbing my gloves when he was trying to choke me.”

“These things happen when you’re inside of the cage. I would never say that Charles Oliveira is a cheater. His body is reacting and doing things without his brain’s permission. You’re in fight or flight. Things happen. So it’s a tough narrative.”

In the end, Chandler believes the haters are gonna hate anyway, so why change how he’s fighting to try and please them?

“I am doing exactly what I feel necessary in the fight,” he said. “The referees, if they tell me to stop, I’m going to stop. There’s a lot of things that you do inside the octagon that you don’t even really realize you’re doing and it’s the ref’s job to tell you.”

Make sure to tune into MMAMania.com next week for a full breakdown of all the fouls Chandler pulled on Pimblett during UFC 314 without any punishment.