[ad_1]
Dustin Poirier handed Conor McGregor the first knockout loss of his career at UFC 257, stopping the former UFC two-division champion in the second round of their lightweight competition in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Six years after their first game, a key part of his strategy was to attack the legs.
“The Diamond” spoke to the media after his big win on Fight Island and explained that his game plan was to “not be heavy on my feet and throw strong punches and box early”, mixing that up with kicking, wrestling and boxing.
“Mike Brown has been very important for me to kick the calf kicks in this fight,” Poirier said at the post-fight press conference. “Really important, and it worked. We compromised his leg and he was in a bad position at first, just from the repeated kicks.
“Even when he started to check, he wasn’t in contact with the shin, like a little more spin, I would have paid for those kicks, but I was still getting the muscle in his leg and that part of it.” your leg and your muscle. is so small and thin that you can’t take many photos on it. After the return leg kick I knew he was in pain.
McGregor weighed in on the impact of the strikes during his post-fight interview, saying his leg was “completely dead” and “seriously compromised”, like “an American football in my shoe per minute.”
“I know from experience how much these things hurt,” Poirier said. “And I knew it was a five-round fight, so it would only get worse. He started to grab it and try to counter it with his left hand towards the end, but I knew they were still landing. He grabbed it after making contact. I knew it still hurt her.
Not being afraid of teardowns made Poirier more confident on his feet as well.
“And if he catches it and shoots me, then I was going – it’s a five-round fight,” he said. “Sure, you’ll never want to give up a round, but I’d like to run a few submissions and see what happens, you know?” I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu and very confident in my jiu-jitsu, but I knew kicking would be a problem because Jim Miller tore my leg and it was a three round fight, and I know how painful it is.
The UFC has yet to determine where Poirier goes from here. On a two-game winning streak since trying to unify the UFC lightweight titles against Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019, “The Diamond” is likely next in line for undisputed gold, whether against “The Eagle “himself or for a vacant throne.
[ad_2]
Source link