Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor have shared the octagon three times and while there’s plenty of mutual respect, that doesn’t mean Poirier is above taking shots at his longtime rival.
McGregor headlined UFC 329 this past Saturday against Max Holloway, but his first fight in five years ended in massive disappointment as he suffered a leg injury that forced the bout to be stopped 69 seconds into Round 1. Fans hoping to see a glimpse of McGregor’s past greatness could only watch in shock as the former two-division champion went down barely having a chance to fight.
Poirier was asked for his thoughts on the contest on the Deep Waters podcast and he didn’t hold back.
“It couldn’t have happened to a better guy,” Poirier said. “That injury couldn’t happen to a better guy. I saw earlier this week, he said, ‘Karma’s a mirror’ and it definitely is. This guy’s a dirtbag.
“I don’t know if it was nervous energy, I don’t know why you would start a fight like that, they’re saying this was planned to start the fight like that. There’s footage of him training to open the fight with this jump kick, but I just don’t understand why you would do that. That’s like a Hail Mary. You’re starting a Hail Mary to start a 25-minute fight. I don’t understand what was going on with that.”
Poirier’s “karma” comment refers to McGregor’s appearance on the Smash Cast podcast, where he passed judgment on Poirier’s recent arrest for public drunkenness. The fighters also have a longer history of animosity, having fought three times, with Poirier winning the past two meetings. After McGregor broke his leg in their trilogy bout at UFC 264 in July 2021, he could be heard shouting death threats at Poirier and hurling insults at Poirier’s wife Jolie.
On THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas, Poirier carried a different energy, sounding less celebratory when it came to McGregor’s injury, and going as far as to defend McGregor when asked if he felt “Notorious” decided to throw caution to the wind because he had a pre-existing health condition.
“If that was the scenario and he knew he was injured and he just said, ‘It’s either me or him the first minute, somebody’s going to fall, I’m going to just go out there and get in his face and throw until one of us goes down,’ wouldn’t you do it with punches?” Poirier said. “Why would you do it with an injured weapon?”
“I’ve just had a lot of time with Conor over the past 12 years and I just don’t think he’s a quitter like that. I don’t know if that’s possible with him. If he wanted a built-in excuse, a storyline that’s already wrote itself and he can blame it on his leg, do something dumb, I don’t know if he’s that type of guy. I’ll say a lot of bad stuff about him, but a quitter, I’m not sure. He’s a real competitor and wants to win and I doubt he needed the money. It’s not like he said, ‘Well, I have to go through this and get into the ring with this injury because I need the money, this is the only way.’ The guy’s got money. It wasn’t like he was showing up for a paycheck. I really don’t understand what went on. I have no clue.”
Poirier did question McGregor’s preparation for his long-awaited comeback. During the five years McGregor was away from competition, he appeared to make fighting a secondary concern and he has admitted to having issues with substance abuse. He disclosed the use of cocaine during testimony for a civil suit in which he was eventually found liable for sexual assault in November 2024.
McGregor’s vices may have caught up to him from a physical standpoint.
“Definitely he looked bloated,” Poirier said. “I thought his face looked a little shiny, under his eyes looked a little full, his cheeks looked full. That could be because he’s been living an unhealthy lifestyle. Also, he is fighting up at welterweight, that’s 15 pounds heavier than his normal weight class at 155, but I don’t feel like 15 pounds would make your face that bloated. I don’t know what’s going on. His body looked fit, his face looked unhealthy.”
“When you don’t live the healthiest lifestyle, your body is more susceptible to injuries,” he added. “It weakens everything when you live an unhealthy lifestyle, so that could have been part of it as well. The shiny, swollen face could have been telling us the whole time this guy’s coming into this not at 100 percent.”
On Monday, McGregor released a statement announcing his plans to undergo surgery and then compete in the final fight of his UFC contract. Should McGregor become a free agent, it’s unclear what his next move would be, but Poirier hopes he maintains some level of integrity when it comes to his bookings.
“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime type of individual and while he’s still competing, people are going to want to see him compete in person,” Poirier said. “So I think he’s going to always have a bit of that, but it’s just he has to ask himself what is he doing? He’s almost 40 years old. He’s been out five years. If his knee is blown out, that’s another year.
“With the record-breaking career he’s had, I would just hate to see him be a freakshow fighter like that and only come out for these exhibitions. I don’t want to see that, that’s not real fighting to me.”
Though the exact nature of McGregor’s injury is unclear, another lengthy layoff could be ahead of him as the soon-to-be 38-year-old fighter already has a reputation for inactivity. Saturday’s clash with Holloway marked just the ninth fight for McGregor in the past decade, including a crossover boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr. McGregor hasn’t won a fight since 2020.
Poirier echoed the concerns of many critics who have questioned whether McGregor’s enormous financial success prevents him from ever being the dominant fighter he once was.
“That’s the big question because when you have the built-in safety net of the money you’ve made and the career you’ve had, there had to be a point throughout this five years when he’s planning this comeback that he looks in the mirror and asks himself, ‘What the hell am I doing? Why am I doing this?’” Poirier said. “He’s a smart guy, he had to be honest with himself at some point in the last five years or at some point in this training camp and said, ‘What am I doing?’
“I believe the answer to that is he’s addicted to the limelight. He’s addicted to people talking about him. He’s addicted to being in headlines. I don’t know if he’s addicted to the fight itself anymore, that’s the big question. Is he addicted to the fight itself? If he is, then he’ll find a way to put himself in a grimy gym and do that old school work that nobody wants to do. Wake up and run those miles. Push yourself to go places you don’t want to go. It’s a lot harder to do it when you don’t have to anymore, you know?”
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