The rubber match at UFC 264 Saturday night may not have ended exactly as Dustin Poirier would have liked, but he won the fight and proved once and for all that he’s the bigger man.
McGregor entered the fight with his gums flapping. The lead up was filled with threats from McGregor, such as threatening to send Poirier home in a coffin.
“Karma’s not a b****. She’s a mirror,” Poirier said after the fight.
After breaking his leg late in the first round, McGregor was the one who had to be carried out of the octagon.
Conor McGregor was taken out on a stretcher after suffering a leg injury at #UFC264 pic.twitter.com/eQe9fa09YJ
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) July 11, 2021
Poirier clearly won the first round, regardless of the injury to McGregor. After starting out with a flurry of kicks, McGregor went for a guillotine choke attempt and took the match to the ground. Poirier was able to fend off the attempt and landed a series of powerful punches and elbows while on top of McGregor.
Poirier allowed McGregor to get back up at the end of the round before sending him back with a combination, which is when Mcgregor’s leg appeared to snap. It was a gruesome sight, and McGregor knew immediately that he was done. The match was ruled a win for Poirier by TKO (doctor’s stoppage) after referee Herb Dean called the lightweight bout.
McGregor sat up against the cage while the doctors took a look at his leg as Poirier went about his post-match interview with Joe Rogan.
“He fractured it [McGregor’s leg] on one of the checks at the beginning of the fight,” Poirier said. “That’s when I checked a good kick. I bet that’s when it cracked.”
“There’s no holds barred with the trash talk, but murder’s something you don’t clown around with,” Poirier said when asked about McGregor’s pre-fight trash talk. “This guy was saying he was going to murder me. He was saying he was going to kill me … I was going to leave here in a coffin. You don’t talk like that to people, man. I hope this guy gets home to his beautiful family.”
“This guy is a dirtbag.”
(warning: language)
"I beat the guy."
💎 @DustinPoirier rules out a fourth as the series ends 2-1 to the Diamond! #UFC264 pic.twitter.com/T42a5kOqvE
— UFC Europe (@UFCEurope) July 11, 2021
McGregor continued to yell at Poirier as he sat on the mat, disgustingly bringing Poirier’s wife into the conversation.
(warning: language)
Conor McGregor with a broken ankle/leg, says it’s not over. And that Dustin’s wife is in his DMs pic.twitter.com/mzEJmfkZG6
— Jordan Dajani (@JordanDajani) July 11, 2021
It was a classless move by McGregor and one that will not be forgotten anytime soon by Poirier and UFC fans everywhere. There are few things that are off-limits when it comes to trash-talk, but families happen to be one of them.
“I don’t like that, that’s not good,” UFC President Dana White said after the fight. “Leave people’s family and wives and you know, all that stuff, out of it. Family has nothing to do with it.”
White made it clear that there will be a fourth fight between the two, implying there would be a rematch when McGregor recovers.
“The fight didn’t get finished,” he said. “You can’t have a fight finish that way. We’ll see how this whole thing plays out. Who knows how long Conor is out? When Conor is healed and ready to go, we’ll do the rematch, I guess. Poirier will do his thing until Conor is ready.”
If and when there is a fourth fight between the two, it will be interesting to see if McGregor has anything left. The legend’s best days are behind him, and his classless post-fight comments seem to come from a man grasping at anything he can in order to stay relevant.
“We are going to fight again, whether it’s in the Octagon or on the sidewalk,” Poirier said. “You don’t say the stuff he said.”
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].