By: Tyler Stark
Well fight fans, I don’t think anybody saw that coming. I know I certainly did not. Dustin Poirier defeated Conor McGregor via technical knockout in the 2nd round on Saturday, January 23rd.
First things first, what an incredible win by Dustin Poirier. Porier finally did it. Six years after McGregor knocked him out, he returned the favor. Words honestly can’t describe the magnitude of this victory!
Not only did Poirier beat the UFC poster boy, he knocked him out! Poirier became the first fighter ever to knock out Conor McGregor. It truly is one of the biggest wins in the history of the UFC.
In terms of the fight itself, it definitely was one of the most interesting fights I’ve watched in my life. Which is crazy to say considering it was only around eight and a half minutes long.
When round one started right from the get-go, Poirier got a hold of McGregor and used his wrestling to get him to the ground.
When that happened I was pretty surprised that Poirier used his wrestling so early in the fight. It was obvious that Conor was surprised as well, so I was very curious to see how he would react. He stayed composed, positioned himself nicely, and eventually got back to his feet.
When both men started throwing shots McGregor and Poirier both had their moments. Poirier landed some very good calf kicks, but it was McGregor who really separated himself with some beautiful right-left combinations, heavy shoulder strikes, as well as a few solid back kicks.
After the bell rang to end round one it was definitely clear that McGregor took the round.
The beginning of the second round saw similar success for McGregor. He landed some nice combinations and looked like he might start to pull away. However, Poirier kept landing those low calf kicks and it was very visibly killing McGregor’s lead leg.
During a heavy exchange between the two men, Poirier got McGregor to back up against the cage, from there Poirier threw heavy shot after heavy shot until eventually the referee stopped the fight.
It was truly a great performance. It was a win that will live in UFC lore for a long time.
The obvious question now is what’s next for McGregor and Poirier. There are no two ways about it, Dustin Porier needs to fight for the Lightweight Championship in his next fight. With current champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov retired, the UFC will have to vacate the belt and select two fighters to fight for it.
There has been talk of Poirier fighting Michael Chandler who looked incredible against Dan Hooker. However, I think the fight that makes the most sense is a rematch with Justin Gaethje.
Poirier knocked Gaethje out in the fourth round of their matchup in 2018. It was an electrifying fight.
Since the first fight Gaethje has signature wins over big names such as Tony Ferguson and Donald Cerrone. Both Gaethije and Poirier have tremendous power in every limb of their body. With Nurmagomedov retired these are the two best guys in the division. This is without a doubt the fight to make!
As far as Conor McGregor is concerned I believe now is the time to complete the Nate Diaz trilogy. McGregor and Diaz are tied at one win a piece in their two incredible matchups. Fans have been begging for a trilogy fight for four years now.
With Diaz coming off a loss to Jorge Masvidal, and McGregor obviously coming off a loss to Poirier the stars are definitely aligning.
The two fights in this series have been all-out wars, and there’s no doubt that the third one would be as well!
It does not matter what weight class this fight happens at. It could be lightweight, or welterweight where the two prior fights have been at. All that matters is that this fight happens!
At the end of the day, Poirier was the better fighter. He looked fast, powerful, and he looks like he could be a champion in the lightweight division. Congratulations to him and hopefully Conor can pick himself back up.
Tyler Stark
Tyler Stark ('24) is in his freshmen year, and this is his first year writing for the Redwood Gigantea. Tyler hopes to work for Sports Illustrated in the future. you can contact him by email with: tyler.st3800@vusd.us
Tags: Conor Mcgregor, Dustin Porier, sports, UFC
Great article Tyler! Do you plan on writing a super bowl article for the school paper?