Marc Goddard
Conor McGregor suffered a second straight loss at UFC 264, against Dustin Poirier
Conor McGregor’s bouncebackability was foiled by his own ankle at the recently concluded UFC 264.
The Irishman suffered a broken ankle in the very first round of the trilogy fight. After inspection from officials, he was declared unfit to continue, and the fight was awarded to Dustin Poirier.
Poirier won the fight via. TKO due to a doctor stoppage.
Many a doubt was raised as to why it was a doctor stoppage loss and not a straightforward TKO loss.
Who would know it better than UFC referees themselves? Veteran referee Marc Goddard explained the same on Twitter when posed with the same question by an MMA fan.
Making it clear that the referee would be the sole arbiter and would act upon the advice given by the officials, Goddard explained:
“Any stoppage be it by the Dr, corner or the fighter that the referee chooses to act upon that comes from a strike based finish, or an injury sustained by fair blows or in open play shall always be a TKO. The referee remains the sole arbiter & acts upon the advice/request given.”
Conor McGregor’s rival Khabib Nurmagomedov broke down the Irishman’s loss at UFC 264. He claimed that McGregor was totally fake right from the beginning of the pre-fight hype, and hence his trash-talk didn’t work against Dustin Poirier.
Khabib also ended it with a piece of advice for McGregor stating that he must concentrate on himself and not others.
This is what the ‘Eagle’ had to say to Brett Okamoto of ESPN:
“It sounds like the same thing Dustin said, ‘It’s just noise.’ He is not him, you know? I think he tried to…It was fake Conor, in my opinion, because a couple of months ago (at UFC 257), we saw how he was nice…It looks fake, you know? That’s why such trash-talks don’t work on Dustin Poirier, I think. He lost so much energy. He lost so much energy because he tried to get under his skin. ‘Don’t focus on your opponent. Why do you focus on him? Just focus on yourself.”
More UFC news
Follow our dedicated UFC page for instant UFC news and updates