Dustin Poirier has engaged in some epic rivalry matches with Conor McGregor throughout his career. Among these, two stand out as the top 5 highest earning UFC pay-per-views in history.
While his first clash with Conor McGregor in 2014 resulted in a knockout victory for McGregor, Poirier managed to exact his revenge in their 2021 rematch. Later that year, he secured his series win in a thrilling trilogy bout.
Similarly, Justin Gaethje proved to be a formidable opponent for Poirier as Gaethje had previously suffered a loss to him in 2018. Recently at UFC 291, Gaethje got the chance to avenge that loss as he faced Poirier once again and knocked him out in a spectacular fashion.
Dustin Poirier has a history of animosity with Conor McGregor, but he acknowledged why McGregor isn’t comparable to any other competitor in the sport as a draw. While speaking on The MMA Hour, Poirier said:
“I feel like it’s the same thing. The business side might be different. I don’t think we’re doing 1.8 million pay-per-view buys. When we do that type of rematch it might happen a little quicker…second I think was 1.8M, third was 1.6M.”
With 1.6 million purchases, Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor’s rematch from UFC 257 is the second-highest-selling UFC PPV of all time. Additionally, their UFC 264 trilogy match comes in at number four with 1,504,737 purchases.
During the first round of his UFC 291 BMF championship bout with Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier stalked his opponent in his signature move. Both seemed to be fairly matched before the match unexpectedly ended, as Gaethje completely knocked out Poirier with a powerful head kick early in round 2.
Poirier acknowledged that his first choice would ideally be a trilogy bout versus the recently minted BMF champion. It’s a tough defeat for Poirier to accept since he thinks he is a superior to Gaethje.
He said: “Yeah, but then I’ll look like I’m chasing s***, and obviously he’s moving on to bigger and better things now, he doesn’t have to fight me. I don’t know. Of course that would be my No. 1 pick, if I could choose anybody to fight right away.”