UFC 257: Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier
This is the UFC 257 live blog for Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2, the lightweight headliner for Saturday’s fight card at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi.
The fight is a rematch of a 2014 meeting at featherweight in which McGregor won by first-round knockout. McGregor’s previous appearance came one year ago at UFC 246, where he stopped Donald Cerrone in the first round to rebound from a failed bid to reacquire the lightweight title from champ Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229.
Check out the UFC 257 live blog below.
Round 1: Herb Dean is the third man in the cage for this main event. McGregor comes out moving forward early and lands a left almost immediately. McGregor putting Poirier on his heels early but Poirier lands a good left counter that stops the movement for a moment. McGregor back on the offensive but Poirier comes forward with a punch, ducks under and lands a takedown. McGregor scoots back to the fence and after some work is able to get to his feet. Poirier holding the clinch but McGregor spins him and lands that shoulder strike.
Poirier reverses again though and it’s clear Poirier is looking to wear on McGregor early. Knee to the body from McGregor lands and now Poirier working on a single-leg. McGregor is being patient and landing the occasional knee and now he reverses the position. McGregor is engaging in the clinch here and that’s unexpected but he’s keeping good head position and is landing some shots. Finally McGregor lands an elbow and separates.
At distances McGregor lands a clean left hand that Poirier eats. Poirier eats another one and when McGregor is walking forward he’s landing. Poirier gets wild with a combo but misses. Poirier lands a clean left hook that gets some respect. Poirier throwing low kicks now but McGregor is checking them pretty well. Back and forth action on the feet with nothing major landing.
MMAFighting scores the round 10-9 McGregor.
Round 2: McGregor looks to be in good condition in his corner and that might be important as Poirier ate some big shots and seemed fine. Round 2 starts with McGregor leading again but Poirier lands a good calf kick. McGregor lands a sharp left that has Poirier backing up but more kicks from Poirier are landing and hurting McGregor. McGregor is certainly not coming forward as aggressively right now. McGregor still eating leg kicks but he’s landing his left hand more regularly now.
Now McGregor is stepping back, drawing Poirier in. More leg kicks and McGregor has caught two and looked to land a big shot off them. Poirier getting a little more comfortable with the boxing but that’s flirting with disaster and McGregor lands a good one. Poirier lands a leg kick that has McGregor hurt! Big left hand from Poirier has McGregor on the fence! McGregor throwing back but clearly hurt! McGregor goes down and Poirier follows! BIG PUNCH PUTS MCGREGOR OUT!!!!!!
