Dustin Poirier believes that his opponent Conor McGregor has a keen awareness of what’s at stake for him in the UFC 264 main event, and it has nothing to do with money.
UFC megastar Conor McGregor will openly admit that he has an active obsession with money. Fortunately for him, that fixation is being very well satisfied, as his placement on the 2021 Forbes Highest-Paid Athletes List demonstrates.
Still, despite having an obscene amount of wealth, McGregor continues to compete in a sport where he puts his health on the line every time he engages in the Ultimate form of hand-to-hand combat, and he’ll do so again this Saturday in his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier.
But why is that? What is it that’s driving this Notorious man who already has all the fame and fortune anyone could ever ask for? McGregor’s opponent thinks he has the answer.
“It’s really on the line for him,” Poirier said of McGregor in a recent ESPN interview. “Like I said, he’s not doing this for money. He’s not doing this for money. He’s doing this for pride, for respect, to prove that he’s still an important piece of this 155-pound division. And that’s a dangerous man, like I said. Somebody who’s doing it for themselves and doing it to prove something, he’s not doing it for anything else but that. He doesn’t need to.
“So I know he’s motivated. He’s not coming out here to damper his name any more: to get knocked out again, to get submitted again. He’s coming to try to build McGregor Enterprises back to where it was. And let’s fuckin’ go.”
Go they will inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada in only four days. The winner is almost certain to be next in line for a title shot at Charles Oliveira’s lightweight championship, so Poirier and McGregor have much to gain both in terms of title contention and in the big picture as the victor of this high-stakes trilogy.
On the flip side, Dustin Poirier has not directly addressed what he has to lose, but he believes that, in McGregor’s case, the relevancy as a top contender in the UFC’s shark tank of a lightweight division will be riding on the outcome of the UFC 264 main event.
