Dustin Poirier avenged his defeat to Conor McGregor and won by far the biggest victory of his career.
The eternal UFC lightweight contender shocked McGregor, beating him by technical knockout after hitting him with punches at 2:32 of the second round on Saturday night in the UFC 257 main event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Poirier hurt McGregor for the first time in his right leg with kicks in the calf. With McGregor’s leg compromised, Poirier pulled out a series of tough combinations. The final blow was a right hand shovel that knocked McGregor down. Poirier followed on the ground, and referee Herb Dean stepped in to call him, scoring the first knockout or technical knockout in McGregor’s 13-year career.
“We are 1-1,” said Poirier, who entered the fight as a 275 underdog. “We may have to do it again.”
Current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has made it clear that he plans to retire, but if he gives up his belt, Poirier has already put himself in the driver’s seat for a shot at the title.
“I think it’s a title fight,” said Poirier. “I’m the champion.”
UFC president Dana White said at his press conference after the fight that he thinks Poirier will fight Michael Chandler for the lightweight title, adding that a recent conversation with Nurmagomedov about his future in the UFC “did not sound very positive”.
“He said to me, ‘Dana, be honest with yourself. I’m so high above these guys that I beat these guys,'” White said of his conversation with Nurmagomedov. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t look very positive. We’ll see.”
“I’m going to talk to Khabib and see if he wants to defend the title,” added White. “And if he doesn’t, I won’t insist anymore.”
ESPN had Poirier ranked No. 3 and McGregor No. 10 in the world at 155 pounds.
McGregor and Poirier had fought before, with McGregor winning a featherweight fight by technical knockout in the first round at UFC 178 in 2014.
McGregor had a strong first round. He landed several hard left hands and a beautiful right hook that threw Poirier’s head back. Poirier brought down McGregor, but McGregor got up relatively easily.
The two fought in the clinch, with McGregor hitting some hard shoulder blows, like the one that hurt Donald Cerrone a year ago. Poirier lost the round, but landed strong kicks in the calf, which came into play later.
In the second round, McGregor hit hard combos, but was having trouble checking Poirier’s kick in the calf. McGregor began to receive Poirier’s kicks and punches. But the damage was still being done.
Upon arrival, Poirier landed a hard kick to McGregor’s right calf that clearly hurt him. Poirier placed McGregor against the cage and unleashed a hard combination that shook McGregor – and then another, culminating in a beautiful right hand that knocked McGregor down.
McGregor admitted that he was hurt by the kicks in Poirier’s calves, saying he was “very committed” to them.
“It’s hard to take it. The highs and lows are higher in this game,” he said at a news conference after the fight. “My leg is completely dead. Although I felt like I was checking them, I was just sinking into the muscle in the front of the leg and I was seriously compromised.”
McGregor added: “I didn’t adapt and that’s it. Dustin’s fair game, I’m really happy for him.”
Poirier overcame McGregor by 48 to 29 in significant strokes, with 18 of them being legs, according to UFC Stats.
Poirier has seven UFC lightweight knockouts, tied the most in the division’s history with Edson Barboza and Melvin Guillard.
It was McGregor’s first fight since Cerrone’s 40-second knockout at UFC 246 in January 2020 and his first time at lightweight since losing in 2018 to Nurmagomedov. McGregor has fought in the UFC only three times since 2016, but promised to stay active this year, saying he wanted to fight seven times in the next 18 months.
Asked what is next for him, McGregor said he thinks there are several good fights out there. He said he expects a third fight with Poirier.
“I’m going to take a different approach to the Dustin trilogy,” said McGregor. “You shouldn’t mess with those kicking in the legs. The kick in the calf, the low kick in the calf, I had never experienced that.”
White said he thinks Saturday’s defeat will make McGregor “more hungry”.
“There are two ways it can happen: hunger or ‘I’m fed up’,” said White.
UFC 257 took place in front of a limited number of fans at Etihad Arena with the COVID-19 protocols in place. It was the UFC’s first pay-per-view event with fans with tickets since March due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Poirier (27-6, 1 NC), former interim UFC lightweight champion, had just one defeat in his last nine fights – for Nurmagomedov. The Louisiana native, who trains outside the American Top Team in Florida, came from a unanimous decision victory over Dan Hooker in June. Poirier, 32, is 11-2 (1 NC) since that loss in 2014 to McGregor and has been a permanent contender at lightweight.
McGregor (22-5) won three of his last four entering, with the only loss occurring during that period to Nurmagomedov in a title fight. The Irishman was the first two-time champion in UFC history, winning the lightweight belt and being a featherweight champion against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November 2016. McGregor, 32, is the biggest money earner in UFC history, and he even overtook MMA in 2017, moving on to boxing in a fight against Floyd Mayweather. McGregor is 10-2 in UFC fights.