{"id":423775,"date":"2026-01-19T18:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423775\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T18:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T18:45:10","slug":"paddy-pimblett-michael-chandler-a-dirty-bstard-in-ufc-fights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423775\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett: Michael Chandler &#8216;a dirty b*stard&#8217; in UFC fights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/paddy-pimblett\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Paddy Pimblett;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Paddy Pimblett<\/a> takes umbrage with Michael Chandler&#8217;s fighting style.<\/p>\n<p>Pimblett (22-4 MMA, 7-0 UFC) scored a <a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/ufc-314-results-paddy-pimblett-042033959.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:dominant TKO of Chandler in his most recent outing at UFC 314;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">dominant TKO of Chandler in his most recent outing at UFC 314<\/a> in April. Prior to the fight, Pimblett was asked about <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2022\/11\/13\/ufc-281-video-michael-chandler-response-dustin-poirier-accusations-not-cheater\/81066543007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:allegations of Chandler being a dirty fighter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">allegations of Chandler being a dirty fighter<\/a> \u2013 ones which were mainly spread by his former opponents <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/dustin-poirier\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dustin Poirier;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dustin Poirier<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/charles-oliveira\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Charles Oliveira;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Charles Oliveira<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Pimblett but the blame on the referee for not intervening, but after facing Chandler (23-10 MMA, 2-5 UFC) himself, he changed his tune.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I like Chandler. Chandler&#8217;s a proper nice fella. But in the cage, he&#8217;s a dirty b*stard,&#8221; Pimblett said on Aspinall&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/rFi5fqzPGps?si=XA-SNUKsg5kPiwoR\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:YouTube channel;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">YouTube channel<\/a>. &#8220;Have you seen the amount of punches in the back of the head Chandler does? You know what I mean? Back of the head punches, f*cking fingers in people&#8217;s mouths.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He tried to do that to (Dustin) Poirier and he bit him because he tried to do that. Eye pokes. He volleyed me in the balls. Right up the middle. It was the most blatant one ever. I went to kick him and he just went up the middle. F*ck off. Like, he said he tired to teep me. I was like, &#8216;Come on, lad.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The win over former title challenger Chandler earned Pimblett his own title opportunity. He meets <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/fighters\/justin-gaethje\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Justin Gaethje;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Justin Gaethje<\/a> (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) for the interim lightweight belt in Saturday&#8217;s UFC 324 main event (<a href=\"https:\/\/paramountplus.qflm.net\/6yoorr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Paramount+;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Paramount+<\/a>) at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: <a href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/ufc\/2026\/01\/19\/ufc-324-paddy-pimblett-opinion-michael-chandler-dirty-fighter-eye-pokes-back-head-groin-strikes\/88251371007\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Paddy Pimblett: Michael Chandler &#039;a dirty bastard&#039; in UFC fights;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Paddy Pimblett: Michael Chandler &#8216;a dirty bastard&#8217; in UFC fights<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett takes umbrage with Michael Chandler&#8217;s fighting style. Pimblett (22-4 MMA, 7-0 UFC) scored a dominant TKO&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,1394,786,11367,785,17498,85,787],"class_list":["post-423775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dustin-poirier","tag-fighting","tag-michael-chandler","tag-mma","tag-paddy-pimblett","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}