Dustin Poirier gave Conor McGregor the first knockout loss of his career at UFC 257, preventing the former UFC two-division champion in the second round of the lightweight fight in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Six years after the first game, an essential part of his strategy was to attack his legs.
“The Diamond” spoke to the media after his big win at Fight Island and explained that his game plan was “not to be heavy on my feet and to launch powerful kicks and boxing early”, mixing it with kicks, wrestling and boxing.
“Mike Brown was very good at kicking me in the calf in this fight,” said Poirier at the press conference after the fight. “Really great at that, and it worked. We compromised his leg and he was in a bad position at first, just because of repeated kicking in the legs.
“Even when he started checking, he wasn’t touching his shin, like a little extra rotation, I would be paying for those kicks, but I was still taking the muscle in his leg and that part of his leg and muscle is so small and you can’t take a lot of pictures there. After the second kick, I knew he was hurting. ”
McGregor assessed the effect of the attacks during his post-fight interview, saying his leg was “completely dead” and “severely compromised”, like “a football in my shoe in the minute”.
“I only know from experience how much these things hurt,” said Poirier. “And I knew it was a five-fight fight, so it was only going to get worse. He started to pick it up and try to counterattack with his left hand in the end, but I knew they were still landing. He was picking up after they made contact. I knew it was still hurting him. “
Not being afraid of falls made Poirier more confident on his feet too.
“And if he caught him and knocked me down, then I would go – it’s a five round fight,” he said. “Of course, you never want to give up on a round, but I would play some submissions and see what happens, you know? I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu and I’m very confident in my jiu-jitsu, but I knew that kicking in the legs would be a problem because Jim Miller tore my leg and it was a three round fight, and I just know how painful it is. “
The UFC has not yet defined where Poirier will go from here. In a sequence of two consecutive victories since his attempt to unify the UFC lightweight titles against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019, “The Diamond” is probably the next in the undisputed gold line, either against “The Eagle” himself or for a spot throne.