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Dustin Poirier waited seven years for his revenge, and at UFC 257 he finally got what he wanted. Poirier’s calf kick killed Conor McGregor’s leg, and fantastic blows to the head in the second round forced him to suffer the first loss of his career with a knockout.
Athletic journalist Shaheen Al-Shatti looked at the UFC 257 tournament and highlighted its key moments, which we also present to visitors to Sportas.lt.
Legacy that has changed over the years
2014 Conor McGregor was the first man to knock out D. Poirier. Since then, the latter has come a long way to face C. McGregor again and have a chance for revenge. Poirier lived with that pain of defeat for a long time and learned from it. Seven years later, Poirier demonstrated a struggle that will forever change his rise in the sport.
We would probably not be wrong to call it the most important victory of D. Poirier’s career, in which he was excellent. He avoided C. McGregor’s quick sprint in the first round, capitalized on his calf kicks, and ultimately made a name for himself in history as the first MMA fighter to knock out the biggest star the sport has ever seen.
D. Poirier was right: in 2014. D. Poirier, who allowed himself to beat C. McGregor, is a thing of the past and now we have seen a war veteran with the ice running through his veins. A man who dared to open the gates of hell and learned to trust his abilities and himself.
Poirier had previously been influential enough to get his name into the UFC Hall of Fame, and now he’s risen to a whole new level. Just look at his list of names he beat: C. McGregor, Max Holloway (x2), Justin Gaethje, Dan Hooker, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller, and Diego Ferreira. This is a list of fighters of whom five men, during Poirier’s takeoff, wore the UFC champion belt. Poirier beat them all.
Poirier has long been one of the most underrated UFC fighters. Now no one could exclude him from the list of the top five lightweight fighters in history.
The only thing Poirier is missing is the undisputed title of UFC champion. There is no doubt that the next fight will be precisely for this belt. UFC President Dana White acknowledged at a press conference that reigning lightweight champion Chabib Nurmagomedov is unlikely to return, meaning the UFC will have no choice but to loosen his belt. After the UFC no longer has Ch.Nurmagomedov, D.Poirier is the best lightweight fighter.
If he were in the UFC, he would organize a fight between D. Poirier and Charles Oliveira, who has a series of eight consecutive victories, to fight for the champion belt.
Crossing
Before starting this part of the article, check out how great the backstage meeting between Poirier and McGregor was.
“We will do it again!”
All respect between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier after # UFC257.
You can see the damage those leg kicks did 😳 pic.twitter.com/6m9SJeCpkg
– UFC at BT Sport (@btsportufc) January 24, 2021
Great respect for both parties, although the seven-year history was bitter.
McGregor himself admitted that he had no response to Poirier’s blows to the leg: “I’ve never experienced this.” These words, while impressive, opened their eyes by themselves.
Former champion of two weight classes since 2016. MMA was a rare guest. During that time, the sport has changed dramatically. The importance of blows to the calves came up right in front of C. McGregor’s nose. While it’s quite puzzling how McGregor’s team and coaches failed to prepare their fighter for such shots, UFC 257 was a sign of how incredibly difficult it is to stay on top of MMA without constant time in a cage.
There are no excuses, Mr. McGregor emphasized. He has accepted defeat and intends to return and relight his star. While we certainly won’t see C. McGregor’s name in the title hunt for a while, the Irishman will continue to be among the coveted rivals.
He still has many options left: a trilogy with Nate Diaz that would make a lot of money for all sides, a trilogy with Poirier, Tony Ferguson could also be his rival. The fight against T. Ferguson for C. McGregor may be the one that, if he wins, still means something in the lightweight category.
Now we’ll find out if C. McGregor really wants to be a high-level MMA fighter, or if it’s just a way for him to thicken his wallet even more. When you win, it’s easy to promise a few fights in a calendar year, but when you lose, it’s harder to do so, especially when you’ve already amassed a wallet thick enough to survive up to a hundred lives.
That’s it: we have reached the final crossroads of C. McGregor’s destiny. You can regroup and test your words in a cage or you can walk away from MMA and go back to your already created legacy.
“Conoras can react to this defeat in two ways. Either he will be even more” hungry “or he will say that he is ending his career. He already has the money. Here as Rocky 3.” When you get off a 100 meter long yacht and live with such luxury, it’s hard to maintain the same ‘wild’ mood in the cage as before, “said UFC President White.
No sane person can blame C. McGregor for his decision, whatever it is. It’s a decision he has to make himself and he can carry it through to all of 2021. UFC plans.
Bellator boy discovered himself
Seven years ago, multiple Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez realized his dream and made a long-awaited UFC debut, in the same tournament that Poirier and McGregor fought in.
Another multiple Bellator lightweight champion, Alvarez’s longtime rival Michael Chandler made his UFC 257 debut and also made his UFC debut on McGregor and Poirier night. The difference with Álvarez was that this time Chandler managed to do what all the fighters wanted.
Chandler couldn’t have had a better UFC debut. His two minutes ahead of sixth-placed Dan Hooker was another great highlight tonight. By fighting Bellator for a decade, he gained financial security and then maximized his role as a key player in the UFC organization in less than a round. It was his moment and he took the opportunity to make an impressive debut in one of the most important tournaments of the year in front of a large audience.
At the age of 34, Chandler will be the best fighter in the UFC’s lightweight category five, and given the fights he’s had over the past decade, the tread on his tires is a bit more worn than that of the most of his peers. However, now you will have your chance. White revealed the idea that Chandler could fight for the title with Poirier, but that doesn’t make much sense. A victory shouldn’t overshadow the work Charles Oliveira has done in the UFC for the past eight years, as Poirier has endorsed. Maybe Chandler could fight Justin Gaethje and the winner would meet Poirier and Ch. Oliveira, the winner of the fight? Yes please.
Underestimate the night
As for how one night in this sport can change everything, we must also mention Marina Rodríguez (13-1), whom you probably did not know before the UFC 257 tournament. Fighting the largest audience of her career, Rodríguez ended up with Amanda. Ribas in the second round and won an additional $ 50,000. A $ bonus for the best performance of the night. Statistically, it was the biggest surprise of the night, as the victory was won against a fighter who has beaten rivals like Emily Whitmire, Mackenzie Dern, Randa Markos and Paige VanZant in recent years.
Many have seen the 27-year-old Rib as a future title contender, and even after that loss, she’s somewhere close. Still, he is now outscored by Rodriguez, whose UFC record is 4-1-2, but it could easily have been 7-0 if there were not two draws against Cynthia Cavillo and Randa Markos and a loss for Carlai Esparza.
A question that also needs an answer: what did Judge Herb Dean think? His late reaction and indecision allowed A. Rib to survive nearly two knockouts in 20 seconds. Dean is a respected judge, but it’s an unjustifiable mistake at that level.
M.Rodriguez “knocked down” A.Ribas with a strong blow to the head and made 7 more consecutive blows to the head when the opponent was no longer defending. Dean then approached the girls and seemed to separate them and end the fight. R.Ribas kept trying to grab onto the opponent’s leg, but M.Rodriguez simply went further, thinking the fight was already won, but H. Dean urged to fight more.
Then Rodriguez made 2 more accurate shots to the head and H. Dean finally realized that they would be enough. Brazil’s victory was credited with a TKO, and both netizens and Dana White were shocked after the fight that M. Rodríguez had to knock out his opponent twice.
Rodriguez basically had to KO Ribas twice lmao # UFC257 pic.twitter.com/KpBRSKfKNL
– DailySportsDosage (@SportsDsd) January 24, 2021
79 minutes
It took journalist Al-Shatti so long to buy the UFC 257 broadcast and it wasn’t one. There was more than one fight he wanted to pay for until ESPN + allowed him to do it legally.
On social media, comments from UFC President Dana White sparked comments from outraged MMA fans demanding a refund because they couldn’t watch the UFC 259 tournament, and the #refund hashtag was one of the most popular topics on Twitter among the American population. Even after purchasing the streams in advance, fans were only able to enter half of the tournament’s fights.
This is not justified by an organization whose leader has paid special attention to the fight against piracy.
The UFC-ESPN partnership is in its third year, and such issues still surface during one of the biggest tournaments of the year. Hopefully something is done with the fans who legally wanted to watch the tournament, because as it turned out now, the pirates did much better.
However, if the goal was to force as many people as possible to watch the illegal broadcasts, the mission is accomplished.
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