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For the first time in his MMA career, Conor McGregor suffered a knockout loss when Dustin Poirier stopped him with strikes in the second round of their main fight at UFC 257.
Afterwards, UFC analysts Michael Bisping and Chael Sonnen explained what exactly was wrong with McGregor’s performance, although the UFC Hall of Famer and former title contender differed on what exactly happened to the former two-division champion.
“Conor looked a little slower than I remember Conor,” Sonnen said on the UFC 257 post-fight show. “We know as humans, you don’t improve yourself at something by not doing it. I give a lot of weight to what Conor said that the layoff hurt him.
“I saw his timing stop, but I also saw Dustin block things, fight back, chew that lead leg. Not to mention the fact that not only the withdrawal but also the threat of withdrawal is paying off. “
McGregor, who had not fought since January 2020, did not excuse the loss while paying tribute to Poirier for a job well done. The result was a far cry from their first fight six years earlier when McGregor sent Poirier in under two minutes.
This time around, Poirier had McGregor limping on one leg after attacking the Irishman with a series of brutal calf kicks before putting together a series of searing punches that led to the knockout.
Sonnen believes vast swaths of inactivity have plagued McGregor since becoming the first fighter in UFC history to be a two-division champion, and he’s really come back to bite him.
“You can go in and practice, you can even get up and do those miles,” Sonnen explained. “I hope Conor McGregor worked really hard, but there is a different intensity. There is a different stress when you talk about competition. Look if we have any myths as an industry in 2020 is that Conor McGregor said, ‘I would like to fight four times’ and we allowed him to fight once.
“There are other competitions that guys compete in. They’ll go participate in a grappling competition, they’ll go get something just to rush, just to get these vibrations, just to be in the back, to warm up, to sleep in the hotel, to weigh in. Conor didn’t do any of those things.
It’s impossible to deny that McGregor has served for extended periods since 2016. He has only appeared in the UFC three times since winning the lightweight title, with a brace in that span while still also suffering a 10th round loss to Floyd Mayweather in match boxing in 2017.
While time spent away from the Octagon certainly doesn’t help, Bisping believes McGregor faced the same nemesis that has hampered him throughout his UFC career.
“What I saw here was Conor’s lack of conditioning which again raised his ugly head,” Bisping said. “I hate to say it. Dustin Poirier had the perfect game plan – going in melee, trying to beat him – and he did it perfectly. At the start of the fight, Conor looked sharp. He looked like the usual Conor. Land your left hand, look confident, move forward, but then when you do a wrestler who’s not used to it, has a history of fatigue, that’s what we’ve seen. We saw the facial expression change. We saw the confidence change and as the tide started to turn, Dustin Poirier saw the opening, put him to sleep. Just a great evening for Dustin Poirier.
“While the stakes were high and Dustin was successful, he was leaving openings that I think McGregor would have taken advantage of in the past. But like I said he was starting to get a little tired and we saw what happened.
While there are differing opinions on how much ring rust actually plays a factor for fighters returning from leave, Bisping looked at his own past experiences with Georges St-Pierre after his nearly four-year return. and his victory in the UFC middleweight championship.
“Georges St-Pierre got off the couch after three and a half years and choked me unconscious,” Bisping said. “A lot of people say ring rust is a mental thing and it is. It’s a mental thing.
“If Conor stayed in the gym and did whatever he said, that wouldn’t be a factor. The reality is that tonight he went over there and he got beaten up by Dustin Poirier. There is no shame in it.
If there’s one thing they’ve agreed on, it’s that Poirier deserves to be commended for a job well done. The former interim champion executed a game plan that left McGregor on crutches after the event thanks to calf kicks that helped set up the second round knockout.
“At the end of the day you get ready, two people walk into the cage, Dustin was the best man tonight,” Bisping said. “You can look for excuses. You can try to dissect it. The ultimate answer tonight, the best man won the fight.
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