American mixed martial artist Dustin Poirier is sure that he would have won the fight with the former UFC champion in two weight categories, Irishman Conor McGregor, even if he had not been injured at the end of the first round of their confrontation.
Speaking in a recent interview, Dustin explained that this was obviously not the way that he wanted the fight to end. That being said, even if Conor made it out of the first round, he says the finish would have happened sooner or later.
“If it wouldn’t have happened at the end of that round, it was going to happen in the second or third round. It was only going to get worse. I definitely felt in control of the fight, even on the feet,” Poirier said.
Following the fight, while he was still in the Octagon, holding his broken leg, Conor McGregor was still talking trash about Dustin Poirier. He demanded that the fight be called a doctor’s stoppage, as if that was different than a traditional TKO, and insulted Dustin and his wife.
“I felt like I had just won. It is what it is. What a promoter the guy is, sitting there holding a gumpy leg, and setting up fights, and still talking trash. Hey, let the guy recover and get healthy and come back, we’ll see what happens and what’s next. But I felt like I won the fight, that’s the feeling I got immediately after,” Poirier said.
“For sure some of the stuff he said is crossing the lines, but this is the fight game. I don’t write the rules, I just go in there and punish people for talking, and that’s what happened.”
Following the fight, Dana White expressed interest in seeing a fourth fight between Poirier and McGregor, proving that Conor’s in-cage antics helped. Dustin says that this is something he is not opposed to, but that he will not be sitting around waiting for Conor to return.
“We’ll see what happens. I’m not sitting back waiting to fight him a fourth time. If it makes sense, it comes about, we’ll do it again,” Poirier said.
“I’m not committing to anything. I haven’t even spoken to the UFC about a title fight, their timeline. I haven’t spoken to anyone about setting up another fight. I haven’t even been reached out to by the company. We’ll see what happens. I guess anything is possible, we’ll just go with what makes the most sense.”