Dustin Poirier avenged his loss to Conor McGregor and won by far the biggest victory of his career.
Perennial UFC competitor easily shocked McGregor, beating him by TKO after beating him with fists at 2:32 in the second round on Saturday night in the main event of UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Poirier first wounded McGregor in the right leg with kicks. With McGregor’s leg compromised, Poirier snatched a series of strong combinations. The closing shot was a straight hand of the shovel that left McGregor. Poirier followed on the field, and referee Herb Dean stepped in to name him, marking the first KO or TKO loss in McGregor’s 13-year career.
“We’re 1-1,” said Poirier, who entered the fight as an underdog plus-275. “Maybe we should do it again.”
The current lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, stated that he intends to retire, but, regardless of whether he gives up the belt, Poirier has now put himself in the driver’s seat for a title shot.
“I think this is a title fight,” Poirier said. – I’m the champion.
UFC President Dana White told the post-fight press conference that he believes Poirier will fight Michael Chandler for the lightweight title, adding that a recent conversation with Nurmagomedov about his future UFC “did not sound too positive.”
“He told me, ‘Dana, be honest with yourself. There are so many more levels than these guys, I beat them,'” White said of his conversation with Nurmagomedov. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t sound very positive. We’ll see.”
“I will talk to Khabib and see if he wants to defend that title,” White added. “And if I don’t, I won’t push her again.”
ESPN ranked Poirier 3rd and McGregor 10th in the world at 155 pounds.
McGregor and Poirier fought forward, with McGregor winning a weighted match with the first TKO round at UFC 178 in 2014.
McGregor admitted that he was injured by Poirier’s blows, saying his leg was “completely dead” and “severely compromised.” He said his knee swelled “like American football.”
“I didn’t get used to it. Fair play for Dustin. I’m very happy for him,” McGregor said. “It was a phenomenal performance by Dustin. I don’t know what to say.”
McGregor had a strong first round. He landed several hard left hands and a nice straight shovel hook that gave Poirier his head back. Poirier knocked McGregor down, but McGregor got up relatively easily.
The two fought back and forth, with McGregor landing a few hard blows to the shoulders, such as those with which he injured Donald Cerrone a year ago. Poirier lost the round, but hit the calf hard, which came into play later.
In the second round, McGregor landed hard combos, but it was hard to check Poirier’s shot on the leg. McGregor began to catch Poirier’s shots and goal kicks. But the damage was still being done.
In the closing sequence, Poirier fired a hard shot at McGregor’s right calf, which clearly injured him. Poirier took McGregor against the cage and freed himself with a hard combination that shook McGregor – and then another, culminating in a beautiful right hand that escaped McGregor.
Poirier beat McGregor 48-29 in significant strikes, 18 of which were kicks, according to UFC statistics.
Poirier has seven easy UFC knockouts, tied for most of the division’s history with Edson Barboza and Melvin Guillard.
It was McGregor’s first fight since a 40-second elimination of Cerrone at UFC 246 in January 2020 and the first time he played lightly since a 2018 loss to Nurmagomedov. McGregor has fought in the UFC only three times since 2016, but has vowed to remain active this year, saying this week that he wants to fight seven times in the next 18 months.
White said he believes Saturday’s defeat will make McGregor “hungrier.”
There are two ways this works: more hungry or “I’m done,” White said.
UFC 257 took place in front of a limited number of fans at the Etihad Arena with COVID-19 protocols in place. It was the first UFC pay-per-view event with ticketed fans in March last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Poirier (27-6, 1 NC), the former UFC lightweight champion, has only one loss in the last nine fights – against Nurmagomedov. The Louisiana native, who trains from the top American team in Florida, would win a unanimous decision over Dan Hooker in June. Poirier, 32, has been 11-2 (1 NC) since that 2014 loss to McGregor and has been a lightweight perennial competitor.
McGregor (22-5) won three of his last four, entering the only loss in this interval against Nurmagomedov in a title fight. The Irish native was the first double competitor in UFC history to win the lightweight belt while he was featherweight champion against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016. The 32-year-old McGregor is the biggest producer. of money from UFC history and even surpassed MMA in 2017, going into boxing in a match against Floyd Mayweather. McGregor is 10-2 in the UFC fights.