Conor McGregor sat and seethed with his back on the cage, a temporary cast around his left shin and foot. The biggest star in mixed martial arts was convinced he had just been robbed of revenge on Dustin Poirier by a broken leg. (More Sports News)
"I was boxing the bleedin' head off him, kiꦿcking the bleedin' leg of🏅f him," McGregor shouted.
"This is not over! If we have to take this outsꦉide for him, 💙we'll take it outside."
McGregor's animosity toward Poirier hasn't cooled🔯, but this fight trilogy ended — for now, at least — with another victory for his more mild-mannered enemy.
Poirier beat McG🥂regor for the second time in six months ꦰwhen McGregor was unable to continue after the first round at UFC 264 on Saturday night.
McGregor (22-6) fell to the canvas and never got up after a punch by Poirier (28-6), who will get the UFC☂'s next lightweight title shot. McGregor's leg and ankle buckled when he st🤪epped back from the blow, and Poirier finished the round raining blows down on the former two-division UFC champion.
"Just the thing ♛had separated, and I bleedin' landed on the wonky leg like Anderson Silva that one time, some🌺thing similar to that," McGregor said, referring to longtime middleweight champ Silva's infamously gruesome broken leg against Chris Weidman.
"It's a mad business."
UFC President Dana White said he was told McGregor broke his shin near the ankle. McGregor will have surger♚y on Sunday morning.
Poirier said he thought McGregor's leg broke when he checked o▨ne of McGrego𓃲r's kicks earlier in the fight. McGregor disagreed, saying there was "not one check."
";You never𒊎 want to get a win that way, but what happened was the result of checking a ki𒁃ck," Poirier said.
"I'm more than sure of🐭 it. He got what he had coming to him. Karma is a ꦫmirror."
McGregor dropped to 1-3 in the cage since 2016, when he abdicated his UFC title reigns and accepted a wi⭕ldly lucrative boxing match with Floyd Mayweather. McGregor has been unable to recapture his fearsome MMA form over the past half-decade — and despite his protestations, there was little in the first round at UFC 264 to suggest McGregor was back in elite form.
Poirier was largely in control of the opening round, parrying McGregor's kicks and landing several strikes before getting control over McGregor on the ground. After McGregor got up from a long stretch of punches and elbows, Poirier knocked him down one last time — and McGregor's ankle bent🅘 gruesomely as he fell.
"It (st⛦inks), because I was going to beat the guy if his🧸 leg held up," Poirier said.
"I need to digest it all, because right now,🦩 it kind of feels weird. It's not a good feeling."
White confirmed Poirier will get the next shot at new lightweight champ Cha🀅rles Oliveira. White also said he expects a fourth f🍒ight between McGregor and Poirier at some point after McGregor's leg heals.
"The fight didn't ge👍t finished," White said.
"You can't have a fight finish that way. We'll see how this whole thing plays out. Who knows how long Conor is out? Poirier will do ꧂his thing until Conor is ready."
Poirier also said he intends to fight McGregor a fourth time — and it will be personal. McGregor returned to his verbꦚose, mean-spirited promotional persona for this fight promotion, repeatedly insulting Poirier’s wife and vowing to kill Poirier.
"We are going to fight again, whether it's in t🐻he octagon or on the sidewalk," Poirier said.
"You don't say the stuff he said."
Poirier stopped McGregor in the second round when 🅘they༒ met in Abu Dhabi last January, avenging his first-round knockout loss to McGregor in 2014.
Poirier's ൩clear superiority in the fighters' second bout made a third showdown seem questionable just six months later, but McGregor demanded the chance to fix his mistakes and Poirier accepted the massive paycheck that comes from sharing ♛a cage with McGregor.
