UFC 264 is eight days away, and things are heating up between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier heading into their trilogy fight.
The war of words continued on Thursday when Poirier explained that he feels that McGregor will revert back to the trash-talking, which made him beloved by the fans, once fight week begins. But unlike their first fight, in which Poirier allowed the chatter to bother him and lost to McGregor by first-round TKO, the rematch played out differently at UFC 257. There, McGregor was mild-mannered and very respectful towards Poirier, and Poirier stopped the Irishman in the second round.
“The good thing about this one is if it’s crazy Conor again, I just don’t give a f—,” Poirier said to ESPN. “I really don’t care, and in the last one, too, if he’d have been crazy, I’d have been all right. Mentally, I’m not a kid anymore. I’m a grown man, and I know what matters, and I know what I can control. I just don’t beat myself up mentally like I used to with the critics. I think it’s gonna be crazy Conor again. I’m pretty sure.
“I wouldn’t say funny, but it’s – how crazy can you be? You got knocked out last time. We put you on airplane mode in front of the world in Abu Dhabi. What can you say?”
McGregor fired the shot two weeks ago, challenging Poirier to a standup battle instead of attempting to take the fight to the mat.
Seeing the tweet, Poirier offered up a different proposition but threw a jab at the end in questioning if McGregor feels confident heading into UFC 264.
“Isn’t he the one whose always preaching about the flow, the full martial arts, no holds barred, no rules, the ultimate fighting, when he’s talking about boxing and stuff, right?” Poirier responded to ESPN. “How about the first one to get taken down is a dusty b*tch? This is mixed martial arts. Put it all together. It reeks of insecurity to me.”
It didn't take McGregor long to see the comments and he debunked the thought of him showing any type of weakness in a series of tweets.
UFC 264 is a must-win fight for both McGregor and Poirier. The winner will be in prime position for a championship fight against titleholder Charles Oliveira or another matchup of their choosing if they want to go a different route. A loss, and there will be some soul searching for McGregor and Poirier. The former interim champion wants to see how McGregor reacts when all the chips are on the table.
“I want a blood and guts war,” Poirier said. “I want to question my will to fight. I want it to be uncomfortable from the first second of the first round. I want to find out all this stuff — that’s the thing about fighting too, the only thing that’s real is when that bell rings or whenever you show up, and you’re training. That’s the only real part about fighting that I love anymore. Everything else is who can say some cool s—t, get a lot of likes on Instagram, who can get more followers, who can do some kind of funny video. It’s just disgusting. It’s a fashion show. It’s all fake. But the real part about it is, when that bell rings, it’s 100 percent real, and I want to show him that and find that out about him. Talk it up, say this, say that, let’s find out who really wants to fight because I know I can count on me. Not a question in my mind.”