![]() Their rematch six months ago was in Abu Dhabi inside the UFC’s coronavirus bubble, and Poirier stopped McGregor in the second round of an equally emphatic victory. T-Mobile Arena hadn’t been built when the duo first met in 2014 and McGregor stopped Poirier in 106 seconds. Instead of moving on, he wants to go back, to get it right - and to set a new path in front of the UFC’s first full-capacity crowd in its hometown since the start of the pandemic. His appearances in a cage or a ring are international events, and he has built a celebrity persona that towers above his peers even as its foundation of sports success eroded over the past half-decade.īut instead of settling into what would likely be several comfortable years fighting non-title UFC spectacles and taking more cash-grab boxing matches, McGregor chose to return to his last defeat. McGregor has reached a level of power in the fight game where he's no longer defined by mere wins and losses. “I see a man here that I’ve defeated, and I know I can defeat again,” Poirier said. Even with a resumption of hostilities, Poirier insisted he won't allow McGregor into his head as he did in 2014, when McGregor knocked him out in their first meeting. Poirier laughed at the difference from the promotion for their second fight last January, when McGregor was disarmingly friendly and charming throughout. “The trash talk was a lot better than that.”Īfter all, McGregor's carefully crafted persona doesn't hit quite so hard when McGregor has had his hand raised in victory just once since the Obama administration: For all his fame, fortune and celebrity, he's 1-2 in the cage and 0-1 in the boxing ring since November 2016. “You used to be a lot better than that, man,” Poirier said during a rare break in the barrage. “He's going out on a stretcher in this fight,” McGregor said finally.Īnd while McGregor's fans drank it up faster than a double shot of their hero's Proper Twelve whiskey, Poirier appeared to weather the verbal blows perfectly well. “He’s not in the same stratosphere as me,” McGregor insisted later. “On Saturday night, you’re going to get walked around that octagon like a dog and then put to sleep,” McGregor said to Poirier. Poirier and the assembled fans got another recital of McGregor's classic verbal combination of dexterity and brutality, the secret to burrowing inside the heads of several opponents during his rocket ride into the sports stratosphere in the previous decade. In between, the loquacious Irishman insulted Poirier's wife, repeatedly vowed to kill Poirier in the cage, questioned Poirier's love for his native Louisiana and called Poirier a common epithet that's much less loaded on McGregor's side of the pond. He threw a kick at Poirier during their event-ending faceoff - when he was too far away to connect, of course. McGregor threw a bottle of Dustin Poirier's hot sauce into the stands early on and then prowled the stage, security guards separating him from his opponent. The biggest star in combat sports preened, strutted and misbehaved at T-Mobile Arena, delighting his fans in a raucous crowd anticipating the finale to one of the biggest fight trilogies in recent history on Saturday night. ![]() LAS VEGAS (AP) - Conor McGregor wore a plaid purple suit and sunglasses when he performed some of his greatest Vegas hits at his UFC 264 news conference Thursday ahead of his latest attempt to roll back the mixed martial arts clock.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |