Dustin Poirier has admitted that Conor McGregor’s kicks in their most recent fight were doing some damage. Not just to McGregor, who broke his own leg throwing kicks at Poirier, but that Poirier left the fight with pain in his bone.
Talking to American Top Team’s podcast, he discussed the issues he’d faced checking kicks thrown by southpaw McGregor.
Poirier on McGregor’s kicks: “never before have I left fight week and been sore on my actual bone”
“I’ve been checked by a lot of heavy kickers, but never before have I left fight week and been sore on my actual bone, like my knee was sore. Not my thigh or calf, my knee was sore.”
Poirier elaborated, potentially shedding some light on what exactly went wrong for Conor’s leg to break in such gruesome fashion mid-fight.
“I just know from getting kicked and kicking so many times over the years that when a kick lands bad I just know it kind of hurts both of us. Even though it’s hitting my knee, it hurts the other guy a lot more.
Just from sparring rounds, I just know. There was one kick, I turned my knee out a little bit. I didn’t have my weight like a traditional check and I knew that was a bad one for him. I knew that one hurt bad.
I think it was on top of his foot, but you never know if that could have caused torque on his shin bone and cracked it.
I don’t know. He was throwing hard kicks, and a lot of them were hitting my knee. I didn’t get to traditionally check the kicks, but I did turn my knee out and it was bone-on-bone and it was worse for him.”
It wasn’t Conor who caused Poirier the most trouble with his unorthodox kicking style, however. That honor goes to Justin Gaethje.
“He partially tore my quad. In the fight, him not caring about position, throwing kicks as hard as he can just to land them, not worrying about repercussions. No setups.”
Whether McGregor’s leg snapped on Poirier’s knee, or against his elbow as posited by Conor’s head coach, John Kavanagh, remains unclear. What is clear is that Poirier’s next challenge will be freshly crowned lightweight champion Charles Oliveira.
The UFC has yet to set a date or location for the fight, but with Oliveira’s belt as yet undefended, and Poirier on an inspiring career upswing – including two back-to-back TKO victories over Conor McGregor – it’s sure to be a fantastic fight.
Do you want to see Poirier take on Oliveira for the title? Let us know in the comments.
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