'It should be another part three' - Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal fancies Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier trilogy fight
Shaquille O'Neal stated that he wants to see a trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.
The former Los Angeles Lakers Center appeared in an interview with ESPN's Marc Raimondi. The topic of UFC 257 and its main event between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier eventually came up. Marc asked Shaq 'Diesel' whether the two fighters should go into the trilogy fight immediately. Shaq responded,
"I think there should be another part three. I think they should"
However, that is not the only trilogy fight involving Conor McGregor that Shaq O'Neal wants to see. Carrying on, he said,
"I want to see Conor fight my guy Nate Diaz again, because they are one and one [as well]... Diaz brothers, I love them both."
Shaquille O'Neal has a close relationship with mixed martial arts. In fact, he attributes his success in the NBA to MMA. In an interview with Ariel Helwani back in April 2020, Shaquille said,
"MMA is the reason I became a champion. I always used to practice basketball. It wasn't enough. Because when I played basketball, it was more wrestling. So when I trained MMA with Jon Burke, a friend of mine down in Orlando, I came back in the best shape of my life. That was in 2000. Won. Dominated. Did it again, won a second championship. Did it again, won the third championship. Got cute, got away from it, lost. Got traded to Miami, did it again, won the fourth championship."
Shaquille O'Neal says Dustin Poirier "got his revenge" against Conor McGregor
Shaq O'Neal shared in his interview with Marc Raimondi that he was in Dustin Poirier's native place (Lafayette, Louisiana) for a while. Correlating the events at UFC 257, he said,
"Listen, Conor's a legend, I'm not going to disrespect him. You win some, you lose some. But, my guy from Lafayette, Louisiana, he's also a tough guy. It was a great matchup. I'm not one of those guys [to say], 'he did this, he did that'. I have no idea what it takes to be a champion at that level. I know Conor has earned everyone's respect. Dustin... lost the first time. I spent a lot of time in Lafayette, I know a lot of people he trained with. He has been thinking about this for the past six years. Conor beat him up pretty bad. He[Poirier] has been wanting his revenge, he got his revenge."
Conor McGregor beat Dustin Poirer back in 2014 via TKO in 1:46 at UFC 178. At UFC 257, Dustin Poirier leveled the score by becoming the first person to TKO Conor McGregor in MMA.