Is this the REAL moment Conor McGregor suffered his brutal leg fracture? Dustin Poirier claims checked kick in first 20 SECONDS of UFC 264 fight resulted in Irishman’s injury as American insists rival’s third defeat in four fights is ‘karma’ for trash talk
Dustin Poirier claims Conor McGregor had hurt his leg in the first 20 seconds of their lightweight fight before the Irishman went on to suffer a gruesome break.
McGregor came out firing with a flurry of spinning kicks before unleashing some seemingly brutal leg kicks in the opening exchanges of the pair’s highly-anticipated trilogy bout at UFC 264.
However, Poirier weathered the storm before dominating the round with vicious ground and pound before McGregor went over on his ankle in the dying seconds of the round.
Dustin Poirier said Conor McGregor first hurt his ankle when he let fly with several leg kicks
McGregor suffered his third defeat in four fights after losing to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264
The Irishman landed awkwardly on his ankle in the dying seconds of the opening round
McGregor’s ankle swelled up immediately and a doctor called an end to the main event
A doctor stepped in and determined that McGregor was in no fit state to continue, with Poirier declared the winner by TKO via doctor stoppage in front of a packed house in Las Vegas.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath, Poirier said that the kick he checked in the first 20 seconds caused the injury: ‘He fractured it on one of the kicks at the start of the fight.
‘It was probably cracked and on the twist of the punch it finished him.’
Poirier called McGregor ‘a dirtbag’ for his trash talk in the build-up to the fight, where he threatened to kill the American.
However, Poirier claims that the fracture occurred in the opening exchanges of the fight
McGregor shouted ‘this is not over’ as he was carried out of the octagon on a stretcher
‘I can take the trash talk but murder there is no coming back from that, there is no need for that,’ Poirier said. ‘I want him to go home to his beautiful family.
‘He did hit me with a good cross like the last fight. Takedown was easy. He put his fingers in my gloves to the upkicks. This guy is a dirtbag, man.’
Poirier doubled down on his view that McGregor’s injury came in the opening exchanges, while reasoning that the Irishman’s disastrous night was the result of ‘karma’.
‘You never want to get a win that way but what happened was a result of checking a kick, I am more than sure of it,’ he said in the post-fight press conference..
Poirier said the nightmare result for McGregor was ‘karma’ for his dark trash talk this week
‘He got what he had coming to him, karma is a mirror and I busted my a** for so long to put myself in this position, I doubled down on myself after beating him in January when they offered me a title shot and it paid off.’
McGregor was furious about the circumstances of his loss before he was carried from the cage.
‘This is not over!’ he shouted. ‘If it have to take it outside, let’s take it outside.’
UFC president Dana White confirmed that McGregor broke his tibia and that he will undergo surgery on Sunday morning.
The controversial ending to the UFC 264 main event has seen plenty of UFC stars take to social media to give their reactions, as McGregor’s arch rival Khabib Nurmagomedov taunted the Irishman.
Poirier appears destined to fight for the lightweight title against Charles Oliveira this year
‘Good always defeats evil. Very happy for @DustinPoirier. I hope you will get the belt end of the year,’ he tweeted.
Meanwhile, lightweight rival Justin Gaethje tweeted a clown emoji, directed at McGregor, following the Irishman’s latest setback.
McGregor has now lost three of his last four fights in the UFC, leaving him some way off reclaiming the lightweight title, while Dustin Poirier looks set to take on Charles Oliveira for the 155-pound championship.