Dustin Poirier is moving on from the Conor McGregor rivalry.
The UFC stars have engaged in a trio of high-profile bouts spanning a decade, with their first meeting taking place at UFC 178 in September 2014. McGregor handily defeated Poirier as part of his rise to two-division champion and global superstar, but Poirier won their two most recent meetings at UFC 257 and UFC 264.
McGregor has repeatedly stated that he still feels he has business to settle with Poirier, but with Poirier set to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title at UFC 302 on June 1 and Conor McGregor returning to action at UFC 303, it seems unlikely that they’ll square off again. And that’s just fine with Poirier.
“I think that ship has sailed,” Poirier told ESPN. “All I want is the UFC lightweight championship.”
Since defeating McGregor a second time, Poirier has alternated wins and losses in marquee matchups. Poirier’s next fight after McGregor was a failed bid to defeat then-lightweight champion Charles Oliveira, but he rebounded with a submission of Chandler. He then lost a rematch to Justin Gaethje for the “BMF” belt before defeating top prospect Benoit Saint Denis in his most recent outing at UFC 299 to earn a shot at Makhachev.
For McGregor, the UFC 264 loss was extraordinarily costly as he broke his leg in the fight and has not competed since. When he steps into the cage to fight Chandler at UFC 303 on June 29, it will have been almost three years on the shelf for “The Notorious.”
McGregor was less than gracious in defeat when the third Poirier fight ended in injury. In his post-fight interview, he angrily made threatening remarks about Poirier and his wife, Jolie, saying, “In your sleep, you’re getting it.”
Suffice to say, that kind of talk likely hasn’t helped McGregor’s chances of making it a Poirier tetralogy happen.
“I don’t feel the need to fight him again at all,” Poirier said. “I don’t need that [bad] energy in my life.”
