If you hoped Conor McGregor’s broken leg and subsequent TKO loss to Dustin Poirier would shut him up, you’ve already been proven wrong.
Very, very wrong.
If you missed the fight, it was a legitimately great one, even though it only lasted a single round. Really. McGregor controlled the early action with an onslaught of different attacks. Even when the fight went to the ground, he went for a guillotine on Poirier, who scrambled out and proceeded to ground-and-pound the former undisputed champion with punches and stiff elbows. Even with Poirier mounted on him, McGregor fought back, and the two returned to fight on their feet. McGregor had backed up from Poirier after receiving a combination seconds earlier, his leg now broken. Poirier pounced on him until McGregor was saved by the bell, as the proud Irishman was keeled over, covering his face.
When his injury was revealed, the bout was stopped.
So, yeah… even after all that, McGregor is letting us know he’ll be back. On Instagram, he’s posted multiple times. One of him on a stretcher — a day after saying Poirier would leave the fight on a stretcher — saying, “You need people like me.” And a clip of himself with Joe Rogan, who interviewed McGregor following the defeat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ymIhvWQug
In that chat, McGregor said a number of memorable things, but most importantly, “This is not over,” and tossing in that Poirier’s wife is in his DM’s. (Probably not a can of worms he wants to open up.) He’s already undergone successful surgery and says he’ll be on crutches for six weeks for what is being called a “clean break of the tibia.”
And after the event, Poirier — now up 2-1 in the series — also said he wants to get McGregor in a fourth fight. Both guys are seemingly willing to do it at all costs, even if it’s unsanctioned.
“No,” Poirier asserted, removing his shades and wiping his face, when asked if the rivalry was over. “We are gonna fight again whether it’s in the octagon or on the sidewalk. You don’t say the stuff he said … he was saying that he was gonna kill me. You don’t say stuff like that, that he was gonna murder me, you don’t say stuff like that.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UBlb8G0p4U
McGregor headlined seven of the nine best-selling UFC pay-per-view events ever, and that doesn’t include his boxing bout with Floyd Mayweather from 2017. (He retweeted that too, by the way.) Of course he’s going to earn another shot at Poirier whenever that time comes. For now, Poirier is expected to prepare for UFC Lightweight Champion Charles Oliveira, against whom he opens as the betting favorite.
But McGregor will make sure we hear from him before whenever he fights Poirier a fourth time, which theoretically could be in 2022.