Michael Chandler’s leg is still extremely swollen just under two weeks after his gruelling fight with Charles Oliveira at UFC 309.
‘Iron Mike’ dropped a unanimous decision to Oliveira in a rematch of their 2021 bout following a two-year hiatus from MMA.
Oliveira dominated Chandler for the first four rounds, hammering away at his shins with heavy leg kicks before dumping him on his back.
In the fifth and final stanza, Chandler summoned up the strength to rock the Brazilian with a furious barrage – although it wasn’t enough to get his hand raised.
Exactly 11 days have passed since their five-round clash but Chandler is still carrying the war wounds.
On Tuesday, the former Bellator champion shared a video on social media showing some massive swelling on his left leg.
Chandler pointed out the severity of the swelling by pressing two fingers into his shin, leaving a pair of visible dents in his flesh.
“Look at that,” Chandler said. “Look at this knee. “The swelling goes all the way down.”
The American MMA star captioned the video: “So you want to be an Ultimate Fighter?” in reference to Mike Goldberg’s famous commentary during Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin’s barnburner in 2005.
Following his defeat, Chandler admitted during an appearance on the Bussin’ with the Boys podcast that he was experiencing the ‘most pain’ of his life.
“I had a phenomenal training camp, we went to war, we did our thing,” said Chandler.
“My body, the most pain I’ve ever been in my entire life. The most injuries I’ve ever had in a fight, for sure.
Chandler left visible dents in his swollen leg after pressing on it[/caption]
“Peed blood, inflammation all over, my whole body is swollen.
“The first one was very light, which was in my drug test.
“New York drug tested me before the fight and then after the fight. I tested positive for blood (laughs).
“It had a light tint and the second one was beet-looking juice. It was dark. My whole body hurt…
“I think something happened to the knee in that first exchange where he had the leg, and I did like a full 360, and he did a kneebar thing.
“I walked back to the stool and I looked down at my left leg and it was not working right.
Chandler’s leg is swollen from the knee down to the ankle[/caption]
“It wasn’t stepping. It wasn’t catching. It was unstable.
“It was weird… Essentially, for about 23 minutes of that fight, I don’t know if the leg was really working that well.”
