Dustin Poirier Mocks Notorious: “McGregor Fast? McGregor Asleep.”
It is fair to say that that the pre-fight Press Conference for UFC 264 certainly lived up to the hype and build up.
On Thursday evening, Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor met on stage for the first time before their huge lightweight fight. McGregor entered first and danced around the stage in typical “Notorious” fashion, taking some of Dustin’s “Hot Sauce” and launching it towards the crowd. Clearly didn’t enjoy the first sample given to him in Abu Dhabi.
McGregor, naturally, found himself at the centre of proceedings, interjecting regularly on Dustin’s questions. When asked what he thought of Poirier himself, McGregor said that all he saw was a “corpse” and “a hillbilly”. Poirier outlined his respect for everything McGregor has achieved, but that all he sees is “a man…I’ve knocked out already.”
Where this press conference really got interesting was not actually with Conor’s attempts at trash talk, but with Dustin’s. When asked [Conor] by a reporter why he has changed his tone from the respect of Abu Dhabi to his more typical attempts at psychological warfare [which, with respect, were awful], Dustin brutally interjected and pointed out that this was because “[he] got knocked the f*** out,” to a massive crescendo of cheers and oohs from McGregor and Poirier fans alike. Dustin proceeded to compound this quick witted remark by saying, “McGregor Fast? McGregor asleep.”
It is extremely rare that a personality as brash and confidently arrogant as McGregor is completely shut down and shut up, but this was one of those occasions. Not only did Conor McGregor fail to dent Dustin psychologically, but he actually suffered by far the worst of the actual exchanges. This is one of the most relaxed and confident versions of “El Diamante” that we have ever seen – could his press conference success translate to coming out on top in the trilogy? It’s very hard to say, but this is a fantastic start to fight week for Dustin Poirier.
