.png)
Poirier and Chandler have been back-and-forth with one another for months in the hopes that a fight will take place. The fight, which had been rumored to take place at UFC 281, has now been confirmed for the November pay-per-view show, according to UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell, who spoke to ESPN. There will only be three rounds in the bout.
Chandler vs. Poirier's official position on the fight card is not yet confirmed. However it is predicted that it will take place just before the co main event takes place. The promotion's pay-per-view event in November is anticipated to be UFC 281, which will take place inside Madison Square Garden. Two title fights have already taken the top spots on the New York event. Israel Adesanya, the reigning middleweight champion, defends his title against Alex Pereira, a previous foe from the kickboxing community, in the main event. Carla Esparza, the newly crowned women's strawweight champion, will face former champion Zhang Weili in the co-main event and defend her title for the first time.
When reports of the fight being close to being finalized started to emerge in early August, a Poirier-Chandler matchup appeared to be quite likely. Poirier, a native of Louisiana, has not been interested in competing against Chandler since the latter joined the promotion in 2020. But as the 36-year-reputation has grown, particularly following a knockout of the year victory over Tony Ferguson in May, Chandler vs. Poirier seemed to be a matchup that made sense for both fighters.
It is no secret that Michael Chandler will be aiming to get another shot at the Lightweight belt as he came close to becoming a Champion before getting beaten by Charles Oliveira. Whereas Poirier has made it clear that he is only looking for fun fights at this stage of the career. Rumors of Poirier facing Nate Diaz also gathered pace but the fight could not be materialized.
This fight also comes with a grudge between the two fighters as they went back and forth engaging in a war of words on social media mocking each other knockouts. They also happened to be involved in an altercation which took place at UFC 276.
This fight will be guaranteed fireworks for the fans as both fighters will look to engage and move forward with dynamite in their hands wanting to knock each other out. One thing is for sure that the UFC 281 pay per view card is turning out to be a delight for fight fans.