"I considered this a title fight. I am the champion!"
Conor McGregor was brutally defeated by Dustin Poirier in the main event of UFC 257 at Abu Dhabi and has now slipped to 22-5 in his career.
'The Notorious' was hoping to force his way back into the UFC lightweight title picture by defeating Poirier for the second time in his career, but the wheels came off in the second round.
With McGregor focusing on his boxing to win the contest, he left his legs open to kicks from Poirier and it had the desired effect. After successfully defending a take-down attempt from 'The Diamond' in the first round, McGregor landed the better shots and won it 10-9 on the judges' scorecards.
However, Poirier landed six or seven leg kicks in that first round and he continued with that tactic in the second.
Even though McGregor was rocking him with his punching, Poirier held true to the course and you could see the damage being done to McGregor's right leg. On a couple of occasions, McGregor appeared unsteady on his feet as the damage sunk in.
By committing to the kicks, Poirier left himself open to having his leg caught by McGregor, but he would have known there was little chance of him being taken down by the stand-and-trade Dubliner.
With a couple of minutes to go in the second round, McGregor's leg had taken a pummelling and he could hardly move. Poirier pounced and unloaded a series of devastating punches that sent his opponent reeling. A vicious cross dropped McGregor to the mat, against the fence, and Poirier followed up with another crunching punch before referee Herb Dean stopped the fight.
https://twitter.com/El_Entrene/status/1353220990013222913
Dustin Poirier,
who claimed the interim lightweight belt in 2019 before losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov, is now in pole position to stake a claim at the belt 'The Eagle' vacated after his October 2020 victory over Justin Gaethje.
