Dustin Poirier lost Conor McGregor the first knockout blow of his career at UFC 257, which stopped the former two-division UFC champion in the second round on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. Six years after their first game, the most important part of his strategy was to attack the legs.
“The Diamond” spoke to the media after his big win on Fight Island and explained that his game plan was “not to be heavy on my feet and throw power shots and box early”, and it mixes with kicks, wrestling and box.
“Mike Brown was really great that I was throwing calf kicks in this fight,” Poirier said at the press conference after the fight. “Really great, and it worked. We affected his leg and he was in a bad position early on, just because of the repeated leg kicks.
‘Even when he started looking, he did not contact the shin, like a small turn more, I would have paid for those kicks, but I still got the muscle of his leg and the part of your leg and muscle. is so small and thin that you can not take many shots there. After the second kick I knew he was in pain. ”
McGregor took into account the effect of the strikes during his post-fight interview, saying his leg was ‘completely dead’ and ‘badly compromised’, like an American football in my shoe at the moment. ‘
“I only know from experience how badly things hurt,” Poirier said. “And I knew it was going to be a five-round fight, so it was only going to get worse. He started catching it and tried to counter it with his left hand towards the end, but I knew they were still landing. He caught it after they made contact. I knew it was still hurting him. ”
Because Poirier was not afraid of the removal, he also had more confidence in his feet.
“And if he caught it and took me down, I would make a five-round fight,” he said. ‘Of course you never want to give up a round, but I want to throw in some submissions and see what happens, you know? I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu and I’m very confident in my jiu-jitsu, but I knew the boneheads would be a problem because Jim Miller tore my leg and it was a three-way fight, and I just know how painful it is. ”
The UFC has yet to determine where Poirier is going. On a duel winning streak since his bid to unite the UFC lightweight titles against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019, “The Diamond” is likely to be next in line for the undisputed gold, whether it be against “The Eagle” or ‘ a vacant is throne.