UFC 264: Dustin Poirier Defeats Injured McGregor In Las Vegas

The eagerly-anticipated trilogy fight between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor ended in a dramatic but underwhelming fashion at UFC 264 in Las Vegas on Sunday morning, with ‘The Notorious’ suffering a TKO defeat after breaking his leg at the end of the first round.

‘The Diamond’ dominated most of the first five minutes, enjoying the top position and dominant striking with a classic ‘ground and pound’. Yet the key moment arrived seconds before the end of the opening round when McGregor, who had earlier landed some strong kicks with his left leg, twisted his left ankle as he put weight on it and appeared to snap his shin bone. A doctor’s stoppage and TKO win for Poirier was the inevitable result.

“There’s no holds barred with the trash-talking, but murder is something you don’t clown around with, there’s no coming back from that,” said Poirier, referencing McGregor’s promise that he would try to kill his opponent in the fight.

“You don’t talk like that to people, man. I hope this guy gets home safe to his beautiful family.”

Beaten, bloodied and with a broken leg, McGregor could only resort to personal insults at the end and declared, “This isn’t over.”

However, ‘The Notorious’ has now won just one of his last four UFC fights – and even that was against Donald Cerrone, who has failed to win any of his last six matches – and his performances in the Octagon no longer live up to the hype. It will be a long road back to MMA relevance for the 32-year-old Irishman.

Earlier, the co-main event had Gilbert Burns put in a strong tactical performance to defeat Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson in their welterweight clash. Thompson landed the more spectacular shots, but the Brazilian had the higher volume of strikes and enjoyed significant ground control at the end of each round.

The early main card matches saw Sean O’Malley defeat fellow bantamweight Kris Moutinho with a third-round TKO; Irene Aldana put down Yana Kunitskaya in the first round of their catchweight battle; and Tai Tuivasa felled fellow heavyweight Gregg Hardy with a thunderous left hook for a first-round knockout.

A highlight of the preliminary card was South Africa’s Dricus du Plessis defeating Trevin Giles in the middleweight division with a second-round KO – sealed by a massive straight right as the Pretoria native burst off the Octagon’s fence.

“I’ve had a lot of left hook success in the past, the right hand has the power as well, and it felt amazing to be here, what a card and what a spectacular guy to fight,” said du Plessis in his post-fight interview. “Dricus du Plessis, remember the name, it will be a household name in the top 10 very soon.”

The next UFC event is a Fight Night at the APEX Facility in Las Vegas on the morning of Sunday 18 July, headlined by a lightweight clash between Islam Makhachev and Thiago Moises.

UFC 264 – Main card results

- Main event: Lightweight: Dustin Poirier def. Conor McGregor via TKO (doctor’s stoppage; leg break), R1, 5:00

- Welterweight: Gilbert Burns def. Stephen Thompson via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28), R3, 5:00

- Heavyweight: Tai Tuivasa def. Gregg Hardy via KO (punches), R1, 1:07

- Catchweight: Irene Aldana def. Yana Kunitskaya via TKO (punches), R1, 4:35

- Bantamweight: Sean O’Malley def. Kris Moutinho via TKO (punches), R3, 4:33