Michael Chandler believes Conor McGregor’s toe-break was connected to Charles Oliveira’s injury rumors ahead of UFC 309

Michael Chandler believes that Brazilian media tried to take advantage of Conor McGregor's forced withdrawal from UFC 303 against Chandler by spreading rumors that Charles Oliveira had pulled out of UFC 309 with several weeks to go.

'Iron' was set to face McGregor at UFC 303 before a broken toe saw the Irishman forced to pull out of the fight. Chandler was then re-booked to face Oliveira in the co-main event of UFC 309 on Nov. 16.

Several weeks before their anticipated rematch, news broke that 'do Bronx' had suffered an injury and was out of the matchup. Those rumors turned out to be false, as the former lightweight champion made it to fight night and secured victory over Chandler via decision.

Several days after the fight, the 38-year-old appeared on Bussin' with the Boys, where he reflected on the false rumors of Oliveira's injury, saying this:

"I never really got any confirmation other than my manager called me two days after that news rumor broke. I didn't think anything of it. There was some gamesmanship happening, because it's like, 'Hey, this happened to Chandler three months ago, two weeks before the fight let's leak something.' And it was Brazilian media so I don't know if it was [Oliveira's] coach saying something. But I wasn't worried about it."

Check out Michael Chandler's comments below (15:55):

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Charles Oliveira reveals lengthy injury list sustained ahead of Michael Chandler fight

Charles Oliveira was rumored to have pulled out of UFC 309, but those rumors were false.

He handed Michael Chandler another defeat in their highly anticipated rematch and appears to have set himself up as the next man in line to challenge for the lightweight title.

Following the recently held pay-per-view card, 'do Bronx' revealed during an interview with UFC Fight Pass Brazil that he had sustained several injuries ahead of his clash with Chandler. The former champion said:

"I didn’t want to talk about it because if we lose it’s taken as excuse. 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."

He continued:

"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."

Check out Charles Oliveira's comments about fighting Michael Chandler injured below: