Michael Chandler has said he’s currently experiencing the ‘most pain’ of his life following UFC 309.
Chandler went toe-to-toe with Charles Oliveira in a five-round co-main event at UFC 309 in what was his first octagon appearance in two years.
The pair had Madison Square Garden on its feet after a wild fifth and final round as ‘Iron Mike’ came back firing down the home stretch.
The New York crowd went crazy after Chandler displayed superhuman strength to slam his Brazilian counterpart into the mat twice.
38-year-old Chandler was largely dominated in the first four rounds and survived numerous submission attempts.
But he somehow summoned up the strength to rock Oliveira with a furious barrage in what was a breathtaking finale.
“I mean, I had a phenomenal training camp,” Chandler said on Bussin’ With The Boys.
“We went to war, we did our thing. Body, the most pain I’ve ever been in my entire life. Like the most injuries I’ve ever had in a fight for sure.
“Peed blood, inflammation all over, my whole body swollen. I feel like, you know, my legs.”
Chandler was supposed to fight Conor McGregor at UFC 303 in June, but the latter was forced to pull out after injuring his toe in sparring.
The American had laid out a very ambitious plan for 2025 that included becoming Dana White’s oldest lightweight champion, but it will be Oliveira who gets the title shot first following the result at UFC 309.
“The first one [pee sample] was very light, which was in my drug test. New York drug tested me before the fight and then after the fight,” Chandler added.
“I tested positive for blood. I tested positive for going nuts. But yeah, so they had like a light tint and then the second one was like a beet looking juice. It was dark.
“Anytime you have a five round fight like that, 25 minutes, even if it’s a quote-on-quote ‘easy’ five minutes—you’re still hyped.
“Your body is doing things, you’re in fight or flight mode for 25 minutes, really 30 minutes, plus the walkout, plus the after.”
Elsewhere at UFC 309, Jon Jones retained his heavyweight title against Stipe Miocic, while Bo Nickal narrowly edged Scotland‘s Paul Craig after three rounds in the middleweight division.
Viviane Araujo beat Karine Silva in the women’s flyweight division, Jim Miller extended his iconic UFC record for the most wins after submitting Damon Jackson and Wales’ Oban Elliot knocked out Bassil Hafez.
“I try to stay pretty present and pretty myself and just focus on being a human being. As soon as the cage closes and Bruce [Buffer] is in there, it’s kind of like a kick-off or whatever,” Chandler said.
“The game’s about to start then all of a sudden you’re running down the field: ‘Oh s*** we’re actually in here now.
“Usually for me it’s like: ‘Oh man, here we go, we’re actually walking towards each other, OK there’s the five, there’s the first handshake, we touched each other, clock’s running, we’re going.
“And then I’m kind of waiting for that first punch to be like: ‘OK here we are, hopefully it’s not a big one.”
Islam Makhachev is the current UFC lightweight champion and he is most likely to defend his belt against No.1 contender Arman Tsarukyan next.
The winner of that fight will most likely give No.2 ranked Oliveira another chance at UFC gold in their subsequent bout.