Now More Notorious For His Trash-Talking Than Cage Wins, McGregor Hurls Insults At Poirier At UFC 264 Presser Thursday
By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
It was only 18 months ago in January 2020 when UFC’s ol’ trash-talking money bags himself, Conor McGregor, behaved as sweetly and respectfully as a choir boy in the leadup to a fight with the over-the-hill Cowboy Donald Cerrone.
But on Thursday at T-Mobile Arena, McGregor had defaulted to his played-out Bad Boy marketing shtick of theatrically insulting his opponent and his opponent’s loved ones.
McGregor is back in literally red-hot Las Vegas this week for his trilogy fight at Saturday’s UFC 264 with fellow lightweight Dustin Poirier, who, you might recall, knocked out the fast-talking Irishman at UFC 257 on UFC’s so-called Fight Island in Abu Dhabi in January.
Late Thursday afternoon, UFC president/ringmaster/carnival barker Dana White rolled out the two fighters before a crowd of fans who waited in 110-degree heat outside the arena to see the McGregor-Poirier presser.
The respectful decorum that led up to their previous January fight in the Middle East was no where in sight inside the arena off the Strip as McGregor launched into an acrimonious tirade filled with insults toward Poirier’s hot sauce brand and wife.
McGregor, his MMA cage skills diminished at age 32, reverted to his “Notorious” marketing ways during his presser with Poirier, a fighter known for his The Good Guy Foundation. Poirier sat poised as McGregor embraced every bit of his brash schtick.
The moment McGregor stepped onto the stage in his shiny royal purple suit, he grabbed a bottle of Poirier’s “Diamond” Louisiana Style Hot Sauce that was on display. He proceeded to dump the contents of the blood-red, six-ounce bottle onto the stage before getting in Poirier’s face.
“Your wife is your husband, you’re only a little b—h of a thing, a silly little hillbilly,” McGregor said.
The comment was a throwback to earlier in the week when McGregor posted a screenshot of an apparent Instagram message request from Poirer’s wife. “He’s Buster Douglas,” McGregor said of his opponent. “It was a fluke win, and I’m going to correct it on Saturday night . . . He’s going out on a stretcher.”
McGregor continued to hurl insults at Poirier throughout the news conference, while Poirier showed his respect looking relaxed in an aloha-themed shirt,. “Because he got knocked the f–k out,” Poirier said on why McGregor, the former UFC two-belt champ, was talking so much trash this time around. “Not McGregor Fast. McGregor sleep.”
At one point, White said, “I’m just trying to make sure these two don’t go at each other up here.”
They came close during the final faceoff as McGregor threw a kick towards Poirier’s right thigh.
“The Diamond” later tweeted a picture of himself and his wife.
“Me and the hubby walking into the press conference,” he wrote.
LVSportsBiz asked McGregor if he recognized Poirier as being on his level as a fighter. Notorious responded, “He’s not even in the same stratosphere as me. The man looks disgraceful up here. He looks frail at this weight now. I’m telling you his head, his body is frail. Nothing is free here. Everything is getting tooken.”
The UFC 264 main card is set to begin at 10PM ET on Saturday. The pay-per-view can be seen on ESPN. The winner of Saturday’s trilogy meeting is likely to step into another big fight with Brazil’s Charles Oliviera, the current UFC lightweight champion.
In 2018, McGregor enraged undefeated UFC champ Khabib Nurmagomedov for insulting his family and religion. After the pre-fight hype, Nurmagomedov submitted McGregor in the UFC event at T-Mobile Arena in October 2018.
