It was a rough night for the notorious one. Conor McGregor became a viral meme after Saturday night’s knockout loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.
McGregor was fighting for the first time in a year since beating Donald Cerrone last January. Poirier started punishing McGregor with repeated punches midway through the second round. Then he knocked McGregor to the mat and the fight was quickly waved off as a TKO victory for Poirier.
After the knockout, the internet went wild and the creative memes started to fly.
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It is the first time McGregor has ever suffered a TKO/KO defeat in his career and likely puts an end to talk of a rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov as McGregor will have to work his way back up the UFC ladder in 2021.
McGregor looked like someone who wasn’t in the octagon in over a year. MMA isn’t a sport that you can stop and go and think you can dominate off of instincts. McGregor talked about that very thing after the fight.
“You know, it is hard to overcome inactivity over long periods of time,” McGregor said. “That’s just it.“The leg kicks were good, the calf kick was very good, the leg was dead and then I just wasn’t as comfortable as I needed to be.
“It’s the inactivity and that is, but Dustin is some fighter. If you put in the time in here, you are going to get cozy in here and that’s it.“I’ll have to dust it off and come back and that is what I will do.”