Conor McGregor's coach believes the Irishman outlanded Dustin Poirier "two to one" in their UFC 264 trilogy fight
John Kavanagh believes Conor McGregor outstruck Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 for as long as the fight stayed on the feet. In a recent interview with Fox Sports, Kavanagh broke down the fight which unfortunately ended with McGregor suffering a clean break in his tibia and fibula at the end of the first round.
NOBODY saw that Poirier vs McGregor ending coming 😳
How did you react?? https://t.co/g4UJ8xw6DO
Kavanagh said McGregor had made the required adjustments to beat Poirier in their third fight, and that the Irishman was outstriking the Louisianan "two to one" in terms of shots landed standing. The SBG Ireland head coach acknowledged the tides turned when McGregor went for a guillotine choke but credited the Irishman for defending himself well off of his back.
Had the fight not ended the way it did, Kavanagh said he was convinced McGregor would have finished the bout with his superior striking in the second or third round. He said:
"The training camp went really well, I thought we made great adjustments...just look at how the first round was going in terms of shots landed, Conor was like I believe almost two to one in the shots landed standing. [He] went for guillotine, ended up on his back and defended himself well on the ground. I thought if we went into the second round it would continue, how it was looking on the stand-up portion of the fight which was Conor landing quite well and when Conor tends to land, people tend to fall so I was fairly confident how it would play out in the second round or maybe the third round."
Check out Kavanagh's interview below:
Stats suggest Conor McGregor was the more accurate striker compared to Dustin Poirier at UFC 264
Official stats suggest Conor McGregor was the more accurate striker in his third fight with Dustin Poirier. Despite having landed lesser significant strikes in the fight (McGregor-27 of 38, Poirier-36 of 66), McGregor landed with an impressive 71% accuracy compared to Poirier's 54%.
Interestingly, the Irishman even outlanded Poirier in terms of total strikes in the fight, landing 43 strikes compared to Poirier's 36. It was on the ground where Poirier dominated the bout, amassing over three minutes of control time and landing some vicious ground-and-pound strikes as well as elbows on McGregor in the process.
Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier have shared the octagon thrice. The Irishman won the first fight via knockout and 'The Diamond' won the second and third fights via TKO and TKO (doctor's stoppage) respectively. The rivalry between the pair runs deep and neither man has ruled out the possibility of a fourth encounter down the line.
yeah, this poirier-mcgregor beef isn’t ending any time soon #ufc264 https://t.co/7A165GJ44E