Dustin Poirier thinks Conor McGregor has burned his last fan.
McGregor’s UFC 329 return lasted 69 seconds before his knee gave out against Max Holloway, and the fallout has been ugly. The card drew the largest gate in UFC history at $26.4 million at T-Mobile Arena. Two years earlier, UFC 303 pulled a gate near $16 million before McGregor withdrew with a broken toe roughly two weeks out.
Poirier, who owns two wins over McGregor, sees a pattern. He told boxing analyst Teddy Atlas on The Fight that the well is running dry.
How many times can you cry wolf before the fans are like, ‘We’re not breaking [UFC] ticket gate records anymore. We’re not coming. We’re not flying across the world to watch you fight. We know what we get with you: a flash … a flash in the pan.’ How many times can you do this before people start moving on?
He doesn’t doubt the drawing power. He doubts what fans actually get for their money.
Of course the world would watch him fight Diaz for the trilogy. The world would watch anything he does, especially in combat sports.
Poirier is also skeptical McGregor can physically come back at all, especially if the injury is what Dana White suspects.
I’m not sure the extent of his injuries. If it’s a torn ACL after five years away, that’s another year on the sideline. At his age, I think he’s done. If he tore his ACL, he’s done. He’ll never come back the same, and that was the big question coming into this one: Can he pull it all together after this horrific injury and come back?
Poirier knows the history better than most. He beat McGregor twice in 2021, the second ending when the Irishman broke his leg, which triggered the five-year layoff that just ended this way.
