Charles Oliveira voiced his disappointment over how the referee constantly ignored Michael Chandler’s violations during their rematch at UFC 309. The Brazilian also sent out a message to Islam Makhachev and Arman Tsarukyan.
Chandler violated a lot of rules
Speaking to the media following his decision win over Chandler, “Do Bronx” revealed that “Iron” repeatedly hit the back of his head, held the fence and poked his eye. However, Oliveira said the referee in charge didn’t do anything about it the entire fight.
“I’m not here to criticize but I wanna tell you something: there were a lot of blows to the back of the head, a lot of fence grabbing. There was also some eye pokes. And I was telling the ref what was going on, I was calling for his attention and nothing would happen. I hoped that he would intervene, but nothing happened,” Oliveira opened up.
🗣️ Charles Oliveira: “There were a lot of blows to the back of the head, a lot of fence grabbing, there was also some eye pokes. I was telling [the referee] what was going on.”#UFC #MMA #UFC309 pic.twitter.com/0C6UDnngEz
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) November 17, 2024
Charles has been suffering from an injury
Oliveira was also hesitant to disclose a knee injury he has been nursing for weeks. For the Brazilian, it’s a good thing he won because he would’ve been heavily criticized and accused of making excused had he ended up losing to Chandler.
The former lightweight champ said he shouldn’t be competing but he opt not to pull out.
“I didn’t want to talk about it because if we lose it’s taken as excuse,” Oliveira said. “If we win, we value it. But I had a knee injury. I tore or burst two ligaments. I was supposed to be out of action for four to six weeks. But I didn’t want to pull out of this fight at all because I knew that if I won I could fight for the title again. I had to do physiotherapy every day, try to train with the pain, but I spent practically 15 to 20 days without training properly. I just really focused on weight training, which was the only thing I could do. But God blessed me enormously and everything worked out.”
Charles Oliveira says he went into the Michael Chandler fight with a knee injury and ruptured ligaments. So, is this what all the talk was about when there were rumors someone was going to pull out? 🤕
(via @UFCFightPassBR, @Bert_MMA) pic.twitter.com/HHi9yzCn74
— Full Violence ™ (@Full_Violence) November 17, 2024
Who’s next?
As expected, Oliveira is back in the title mix. As early as now, “Do Bronx” has already issued a challenge to Makhachev and Tsarukyan, suggesting that he will be facing the winner of the pair’s reported showdown in January.
1st row in January.
Who’s nxt?#UFC309 pic.twitter.com/vb1O05jyiX
— Charles ‘DoBronxs’ Oliveira (@CharlesDoBronxs) November 17, 2024
The dominant win over Chandler saw Oliveira preventing a back-to-back defeat, having lost to Tsarukyan at UFC 300. At this point, “Do Bronx” seems interested in getting nothing less but another shot at the title.
