McGregor surprises fans with 'unexpected' message to Poirier after UFC 299 win
Conor McGregor has surprised fans after he congratulated long-time rival Dustin Poirier on his "great fight" with Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299.
Poirier beat Saint-Denis by knockout in the second round as he got back to winning ways after losing his previous fight at UFC 291 to Justin Gaethje. And McGregor, who has fought Poirier three times in his career, gave props to both fighters after the bout.
"Great fight out of them French boys tonight! Toutes nos félicitations", McGregor wrote on social media in a nod to Poirier's French heritage. However, when asked about McGregor's comments at the post-fight press conference, Poirier simply replied: "Well he felt that right hook, too."
And it appears the 35-year-old is now set for a title shot against UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev. Following Poirier's win, Makachev's manager Ali Abdelaziz wrote: "Dustin Poirier took a huge risk tonight and came out on top and looked amazing.
"Dustin vs Islam in June especially since everyone else has fights. If the UFC is good with this then Islam would be game." To which Poirier responded by simply writing: "Islam in June".
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Although UFC president Dana White was not ready to name Poirier as Makhachev's next contender immediately after his win, he was full of praise for the Diamond. " The fight that he took tonight with Benoit when the talk first started, everybody was like, 'Oh, this is a bad fight for Poirier, blah, blah, blah,'" White said.
"Then Poirier came out and said 'You know what, I didn't sign' and all this [other stuff]. This is the s*** that makes you a f****** legend. These are legendary fights.When you go in, and you face a guy who is a savage and looks like you can't win this fight, or people think you can't win this fight, and then you go in and do it in spectacular fashion, the way that he did tonight, a lot of these fighters get very [paranoid].
"You've heard it many times in the past – [They say], 'They want me to lose,' or 'They're trying to make me lose.' I heard some nutty s*** the other day from somebody that I won't even mention, but we don't determine whether you lose or whether you win — you do.
"What we try to do is put on the best match made fight that we can possibly do, and that's why big stars are built in the UFC and legendary fights happen every weekend. Poirier, again like I just said, his stock again goes through the roof.
"At his age, all the things he's accomplished, all the things he's done, look at what he did tonight. I don't know if you guys are too busy typing or whatever the f*** it is you guys do during fights but if you stood up and saw the arena, it was insane. People were going nuts. Poirier went to a whole other level tonight with this fight."
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