Dustin Poirier’s coach Mike Brown has said he doesn’t believe Conor McGregor is the same fighter he once was.
All the way back in September 2014 at UFC 178, Conor McGregor beat Dustin Poirier inside two minutes and vaulted himself directly into title contention at featherweight. Then, more than six years later at UFC 257, Poirier exacted his revenge at lightweight with a dominant TKO rematch victory on Fight Island.
It seemed as if the pair were destined to square off one more time and in front of a capacity crowd in Las Vegas earlier this month, that’s exactly what they did.
Is McGregor done as an elite fighter?
McGregor started well but wound up suffering some severe ground and pound at the hands of “The Diamond”, and then in the final seconds of the first round, “The Notorious” fell back and broke his leg – ending the fight courtesy of a doctor stoppage.
During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, the aforementioned Brown spoke candidly about McGregor’s rise and fall in mixed martial arts.
“I’m not exactly certain what it is, but yeah, he did seem much sharper with his tongue in the past,” Brown said.
“Maybe he’s in a tough spot? I don’t know what it is, but it also appears he has no lines anymore. He used to have some lines, some ethical and moral lines, but those seem to have gone away.
“Yeah he doesn’t seem to be quite the same fighter both in the ring, and with him promotion-wise too. Not sure what is is, but something seems different.”
“If you look at the history of both of these guys, one of them gets stronger as the fight goes and one of them doesn’t. Conor was going to be most dangerous in the first, and I felt like as the fight went, it was only going to get easier,” Brown said.
“[McGregor has] changed the game, done so much for the sport. He’s the biggest star the sport has ever seen. He brings a lot of eyeballs. He’s done a lot of great things but I think skill wise, we’ve got the superior fighter with Dustin.”
Poirier now looks set to challenge Charles Oliveira for the UFC lightweight title later this year.
Featured image credit: Getty
