The sport of MMA is always unpredictable. And we get reminded of that again tonight as we saw many surprises at UFC 257. While Dan Hooker, who has taken bombs from all the best lightweights in the world and survived them like they are nothing, succumb to the left hand from Michael Chandler. We also saw Conor McGregor, the knockout specialist, the champ champ, get knocked out by Dustin Poirier in round 2.
After a close first round between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, the fight ended with a stunning knock out from the former lightweight champion.
Dustin Poirier showed up with a perfect game plan. He mixed his wrestling to survive the early storm that Conor usually comes with. He chopped the legs with kicks that limited his movement of McGregor, affecting his striking. And he was able to land a huge right hook when he saw the opening.
Though Conor McGregor looked precise in the first round it was not enough in the end as he suffered his third UFC defeat. Conor has received a lot of support after the loss from the MMA community. However, Khabib Nurmagomedov showed no mercy as he trashed McGregor after the loss.
Conor McGregor fires back at Khabib Nurmagomedov
When Conor came to know about the comments from the lightweight champion, he said:
“It is what it is. Respect the athletes. That’s the character of the man for sure behind the mask. What does he want to do? Is he going to come back or not? Cause he is throwing no leg kicks. I got up off the ground against Dustin. I tore Dustin. Like I said style makes fights. Every fight is a different fight. That’s why all these prestige and all that, people trying to like hold on to that. I don’t hold onto that.”
“Whether someone has multiple wins or multiple losses. Every fight between every man is different. And that’s it. Dustin’s style just played into it today. And he has durability, he has the experience and he has the leg kicks now in his arsenal. I will adjust and keep going. If he wants to have his disrespectable comments come back and let’s go again my man. I am here for it. That’s fighting talk. If you are coming back then come back. You try and do it.”
Conor McGregor confirmed that he will be back in the octagon again. He said that he intends to stay active in the octagon and blamed the inactivity in the last few years for his loss to Poirier. Well, we have seen Conor come back better after losses. It would be intriguing to see how Conor processes this loss and what he chooses to do next.