Conor McGregor revives trash-talking ways leading up to trilogy bout with Dustin Poirier
Things are heating up between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier ahead of their trilogy bout, thanks in large part to "The Notorious One."
The two will headline UFC 264 on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and McGregor is setting the record straight on what fans can expect from him this weekend.
And he's not going light on the trash talk, despite his calm approach before the sequel fight in January.
Heading into their third contest, the two are 1-1 after their pair of bouts. McGregor beat ‘The Diamond’ back in 2014 via a first-round TKO, but Poirier most recently beat McGregor – in arguably the biggest win of his career – via a second-round TKO at UFC 257 in January.
But that loss hasn't seemed to affect Conor's confidence.
In an interview with "The Mac Life" on Wednesday, McGregor didn’t hold back when asked about his "less talk, more action" mindset going into Saturday’s fight and how losing to Poirier has only made him better.
"Keep the enemy in a suspended amount of terror. That’s it. He’s a corpse … that’s gonna get his a-- whopped," McGregor said. "But setbacks are a beautiful thing. Defeat is the secret ingredient to success and it's put me right where I need to be."
That came a day after McGregor included Poirier's wife in the matter, posting a screenshot of what appears to be a message that she was sending to McGregor.
McGregor also told "Rolling Stone" about his mindset and expectations heading into the fight and how he plans to "steamroll" Poirier this time around.
"I’m active, I’m fresh, I’m dangerous, and I’m hyper-focused," he said. "I’m going to knock him out. Without question. I’m the most dangerous I’ve ever been, I’m the most focused I’ve ever been. And I’m going to take him out. He won’t have any way to deal with what I’m bringing on Saturday, and that’s it."
Then, at Friday's press conference, McGregor really let loose, again predicting Poirier's demise.
This version of McGregor is not the one that was present before his January rematch with Poirier. In fact, in an interview with ESPN's Stephen A. Smith on Thursday, Smith asked McGregor why he was so "incredibly nice" to Poirier in the lead-up to that fight.
Said McGregor: "I had a little bit of pity for Dustin. He's been around many years. It's not a pretty game for a lot of people in this business. I wanted to be respectful. … F--- that this time. It wasn't reciprocated. … I'm gonna punish him for that."
McGregor also said that he was already looking forward to getting back in the boxing ring when he was training to fight Poirier.
"I was looking past him. I had a Manny Pacquiao camp in place. I've dialed it back in."
Conor sure does know how to build the anticipation, something to which UFC president Dana White can attest.
On Wednesday's edition of "The Herd," UFC President Dana White joined Colin Cowherd to talk about the upcoming fight between Poirier and McGregor, and White told Colin when he knew he'd found a star in Conor McGregor.
"I was in Ireland one time and everybody was coming up to me talking about Conor McGregor. … I met with him, had dinner with him, and when I left that dinner, I said, ‘I don’t know if this kid can fight but if he can even throw a punch, he's gonna be a huge star.'"
That said, the question remains: Will a re-focused, re-engaged McGregor be enough to beat Poirier?
If you ask Skip Bayless, the answer is a definite no.
"What do we know about Conor McGregor?" Bayless said. "He's lost three of his last six fights and two of his last three, and they were not pretty sights. … I saw Poirier say in an interview the other day that he does not mind bleeding. That he wants to hurt in this fight, he wants both these guys to hurt because then he wants to see who the tougher man is. That's his mindset going on. I do not think that's Conor's mindset. I don't think he wants to bleed or wants to hurt.
"He does want to win, but at what price? At what cost?"
One thing's for sure: Win or lose, it's always a spectacle with McGregor.
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