THE much-anticipated third fight of top lightweight fighters Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) came to an abrupt end on Sunday (Manila time) after the latter suffered what appeared to be an ankle injury late in the opening round of the main event of UFC 264.
Fighting to settle once and for all their bitter rivalry, the third encounter instead took an “inconclusive” turn with Mr. McGregor ruled unable to go because of a broken ankle to hand the win to Mr. Poirier by technical knockout (doctor’s stoppage).
But Mr. Poirier dominated Mr. McGregor for much of the opening round before the unfortunate incident.
Following intense action on the ground where American Poirier punished Irish McGregor, the two took their fight standing up. But as the first round wound up, Mr. McGregor badly rolled his left ankle which forced him down. It was an opportunity that Mr. Poirier capitalized on, throwing solid punches before the bell rang.
Mr. McGregor immediately pointed to his injury and moments later the fight was declared over to the disappointment of the crowd at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Both fighters regretted the ending after, but had different takes on it.
Mr. Poirier was satisfied with his performance and was confident of eventually finishing his opponent had the fight continued while Mr. McGregor highlighted that it was a doctor’s stoppage and that the outcome of the match was still out until the injury occurred.
The win stretched Mr. Poirier’s UFC win streak to three matches, including back-to-back victories over Mr. McGregor who defeated him the first time around in 2014. He now sports a 28-6 record and is the number one contender for the lightweight belt currently held by Charles Oliveira of Brazil.
Mr. McGregor (22-6), for his part, has lost three of his last fights.
Meanwhile, other winners in the main card of UFC 264 were welterweight Gilbert Burns over Stephen Thompson by unanimous decision, heavyweight Tai Tuivasa over Greg Hardy (first-round knockout), Irene Aldana over Yana Kunitskaya (first-round TKO); and bantamweight Sean O’Malley over Kris Moutinho (third-round TKO). — Michael Angelo S. Murillo