On Saturday, former two-weight world champion Irish mixed martial artist, Conor McGregor, was left stunned on his return to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as his American opponent, Dustin Poirier, defeated him resoundingly in their UFC 257 rematch.
It was McGregor’s third time coming back to active fighting after retiring twice before and he came intending to square it out against fellow 32-year-old Poirier at the Fight Island in Abu Dhabi.
McGregor’s experience gave him a slight advantage in the first round to edge it in his favour but there was nothing like that in the one that followed because Poirier unleashed precision-aimed kicks and a flurry of punches to seal a technical knockout two minutes 32 seconds into round two of their rematch.
A contrite and beaten McGregor said after the loss: “I’m gutted, it’s a tough one to swallow.”
“His leg kicks were good, my leg was dead and I wasn’t as comfortable as I needed to be. I have to dust it off and come back.”
In his own remarks, Poirier confessed to have been second-best mentally when the pair first fought and that McGregor had won the mind games before they even stepped into the octagon in that featherweight bout in September 2014. McGregor had beaten the American then inside just 106 seconds.
It was the victory McGregor rode on and it set “the Notorious” on course for global stardom. The Irishman grew with victories and bouts to become the UFC’s first simultaneous two-weight champion. He even faced American professional boxer Floyd Mayweather in one of the richest bouts in boxing history in 2017.
On Saturday, McGregor showed no signs of rustiness despite having just two UFC fights since, losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018 and beating Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone in 40 seconds last January. He started really well and gave Poirier a lot to deal with.
McGregor pinned his American challenger against the Octagon fence for most of the first round, though he survived an early takedown himself to Poirier’s dismay. In front of about 2,000 fans at the 18,000-capacity Etihad Arena, McGregor applied the shoulder strikes he used so effectively against Cerrone to edge his advantage as he tagged Poirier with a couple of right-hand shots.
Poirier, a southpaw, did not reply shot-for-shot. He took the rather tactical route of delivering a series of what must have been well-practiced leg kicks which were very effective in destabilising McGregor. Then, the American pounced on him midway through the second round to take his record to 27-6 with a strong victory.
The victorious Poirier said afterwards: “We’re 1-1 – maybe we have to do it again.
“The goal was to be technical, pick my shots and not brawl at all. Then I had him hurt so I went a little crazy.”