UFC 309 results: Charles Oliveira survives late Michael Chandler rally to win shocking decision, claims title shot

Charles Oliveira almost slipped on the well-known banana peel.

The former UFC lightweight champion survived a brutal late rally from Michael Chandler to earn an otherwise one-sided unanimous decision Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 309. After dominating Chandler in the first four rounds, Oliveira ate a flush right hand that dropped him in the opening seconds of the fifth. Chandler threw and poured on a flurry of punches in an attempt to steal victory from the jaws of defeat, but Oliveira kept his wits and ultimately escaped the sequence intact.

In the end, the judges scored the fight 49-46, 49-46 and 49-45 for Oliveira (34-10, 1 NC), keeping the Brazilian’s dream of regaining the UFC lightweight title alive.

“This guy is one of the toughest guys I’ve ever fought. This guy deserves to be here. This guy has all my respect,” Oliveira said after the fight from New York’s Madison Square Garden.

“Hey, Dana (White), Hunter (Campbell), whoever’s next in line, I’ll be right on the front row in January (for the Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan title fight). Whoever it is, I’m the next.”

Chandler’s late turnaround was made all the more impressive because the win appeared to be a mere formality for Oliveira, 35, heading into the fight’s final five minutes. Oliveira soundly outclassed Chandler (23–9) in the first 20 minutes of the fight, battering the American with a series of long straight punches, uppercuts and hard knees up the middle in a masterful display of distance control. But Oliveira’s best work came on the mat — the ex-champ scored takedowns in each of the first four rounds and spent much of the contest chasing submissions from top position and back control.

But Chandler, 35, was undeterred.

The three-time former Bellator lightweight champion came out to the final round like a house on fire, throwing hard punches with reckless abandon. Even after failing to put Oliveira away, Chandler delighted the crowd with two giant reverses as Oliveira clung to his back in the final seconds.

“Aren’t you amused?” Chandler roared afterwards.

“Maybe Max Holloway for the BMF belt (is next for me), or – Conor McGregor, if you can ever get your house back in order, while we real professionals have been keeping the Octagon warm, we wonder where you’ve been, Conor come back and beat me if you can!”

Saturday’s co-main event was a rematch of a 2021 fight in which Oliveira defeated Chandler to capture the then-vacant UFC lightweight title with a second-round come-from-behind knockout after nearly being stopped in the opening round.

Heading into UFC 309, Chandler had effectively sidelined himself since a November 2022 loss to Dustin Poirier to pursue a fateful fight against his “The Ultimate Fighter 31” trainer rival, McGregor. Chandler and McGregor were even supposed to meet in June at UFC 303, but the fight fell apart after McGregor suffered a broken toe. Chandler eventually moved on, telling Uncrowned that he takes “extreme responsibility” for his decision to lose so much time in the final chapters of his prizefighting career while awaiting a McGregor fight that never materialized.

But after Saturday’s theatrics, Chandler could still very much be in contention for a potential McGregor fight, even though he has lost three of his last four UFC fights.

Oliveira is now 2-1 since dropping the title to Makhachev in October 2022. He also defeated Beneil Dariush with a first-round knockout before losing a narrow split decision to Tsarukyan last April.