The World Would not Want a 4th Conor McGregor-Dustin Poirier Fight After UFC 264

Sooner than their trilogy fight Saturday at UFC 264, Conor McGregor many occasions predicted he would “fracture” Poirier, and that Poirier would be leaving the cage on a stretcher.

But once the smoke cleared in Las Vegas, it modified into McGregor who modified into wheeled from the enviornment. 

Thanks to a grotesque leg fracture, Poirier (28-6 1 NC) obtained a doctor’s stoppage TKO victory over McGregor (22-6) after the conclusion of the first spherical of Saturday’s main match. McGregor threw a punch after which fell to the canvas after stepping again onto his left leg. Poirier moved in to land a pair of strikes, nonetheless the spherical ended a pair of seconds later. Despite the indisputable reality that there modified into nothing excellent referring to the sequence in true time, the replay clearly confirmed McGregor’s left leg snap below his weight. The doctor waved off the bout, and there is your anticlimax. (It modified into in a roundabout intention definite McGregor had fractured his tibia.)

But there modified into moderately more drama to be had. The negative blood between these two did not only persist nonetheless looked as if it would possibly perhaps procure worse, with the two shouting pleasantries at every other as scientific doctors labored on McGregor’s leg, Poirier calling McGregor a “dirtbag” in his post-fight interview, and McGregor responding with one thing about Poirier’s wife being in his DMs?

I do not know. It modified into a form of nights. And it looks relish we are going to have as a minimal but any other of those nights in our future, with a fourth McGregor-Poirier now apparently a done deal, especially after UFC prez Dana White gave the premise his blessing after the card modified into over. 

But can we in fact prefer it? Now not in fact. If major, build this one on the novelty track and give it the same evergreen salvage as, thunder, McGregor vs. Nate Diaz (20-13) piece three. For now, let’s circulation on with our lives. There are better fights to develop for every males, as a minimal for the foreseeable future. (And all of this assumes McGregor will return to the cage, which clearly we’re all hoping he’s going to form, and sooner in preference to later.)

I’ll thunder this: The McGregor-Poirier pork is true. The two couldn’t even agree on how McGregor’s hurt in fact took location. 

“He fractured it on one of many checks [of a leg kick] at the origin of the fight, then it broke on the punch,” Poirier told broadcaster Joe Rogan in the cage after the fight. “When I pointed at him at the origin of the fight, that’s after I checked a correct form kick, and I bet that’s when it cracked … then appropriate on the twisting motion of the punch, that is what executed it.”

When Rogan knelt down for a pair of phrases with McGregor as the scientific doctors stabilized his leg, McGregor, beside himself with anxiety and frustration, denied Poirier’s story earlier than yelling out, “Right here will not be any longer over!”

Poirier doubtless salvage no longer need a disaster with that, as he went on in some size about what he considered as McGregor’s over-the-top trash focus on and a few soiled strikes in the cage. 

“There’s not any holds barred with the trash focus on, nonetheless execute is one thing you don’t clown around with,” Poirier mentioned. “This guy modified into asserting he modified into gonna execute me and all these items, asserting he modified into going to fracture me, that I modified into gonna hasten away right here in a coffin. You do not focus on relish that to of us, man. … He modified into striking his fingers in my glove to strive to drag me down for upkicks. …This guy’s a dirtbag.” 

Ouch.

In the length in-between, hopefully Poirier does certainly procure that shot at reigning gentle-weight champ Charles Oliveira (31-8 1 NC). Poirier has never captured non-period in-between gold earlier than no matter an oft-acknowledged wish to form so. Yes, any other bout with McGregor would be an enormous payday, nonetheless Poirier has already snagged two of those (their first bout modified into in 2014, earlier than McGregor’s necessary person in fact took off). 

So while a fourth McGregor bout shall be viable in fact indefinitely for Poirier, title fights are moderately more ephemeral.

It is definite McGregor desires any other likelihood, and badly. He and his supporters would possibly perchance perhaps moreover must judge that Saturday’s capture modified into fluky, nonetheless the reality is legs don’t appropriate fracture. Poirier needed to form one thing to precipitate it. Regardless, Poirier had the brink after one action-packed spherical. In accordance with respectable UFC stats, Poirier landed 36 important strikes to McGregor’s 27. He moreover deftly escaped a serious McGregor guillotine choke strive while hitting on one of two takedown shots and outslugging McGregor in a prolonged floor-and-pound sequence, touchdown some colossal elbows from the discontinue.

Assuming Poirier faces Oliveira next, where does that hasten away McGregor? At the birth, he’ll have a prolonged rehab length. No telling how long this would possibly perchance perhaps perhaps moreover moreover be. But as an different of handing him Poirier on a silver platter upon his return, how about making him manufacture it?

Right here is now a guy who’s 3-4 in MMA over the final five years. You would possibly perchance perhaps pencil him in for contenders relish Justin Gaethje (22-3) or Beneil Dariush (21-4-1)—every very attention-grabbing matchups—otherwise which you would possibly perchance circulation him even farther down for a winnable action fight with, thunder, Dan Hooker (20-10). If it be McGregor, this would possibly perchance promote. That’s no longer the disaster. The disaster is what McGregor has earned in the cage of unhurried. Despite the indisputable reality that the leg fracture modified into downhearted, change is change, and the reality is McGregor hasn’t consistently delivered in years.

There’s not any trigger of McGregor to speed again. He’ll be resplendent. And there is just not any motive to speed any other bout with Poirier particularly.

In a nutshell: This in fact will not be any longer one thing the field desires to gaze until McGregor demonstrates otherwise. It doubtlessly will happen, because in a roundabout intention every males must settle this ranking and it would possibly perhaps develop everybody cash. In the length in-between, McGregor must stew in the sting of a transparent and embarrassing defeat.

“Karma’s no longer a b—h,” Poirier told Rogan after the fight. “She’s a replicate.”