UFC 291: Conor McGregor’s bombshell after Justin Gaethje’s stunning KO of Dustin Poirier

Long-time McGregor rival Poirier had barely regained his feet after being knocked unconscious by a high kick when the attention-starved Irishman hit social media.

McGregor hasn’t fought in two years after suffering back-to-back defeats to Poirier in 2021.

Still, he’s often amoung the first to chirp online when watching the fights.

“Justin, I’ll slap you around,” he tweeted shortly after the Poirier-Gaethje main event at UFC 291 ended.

McGregor had seemed destined for a lightweight fight with Michael Chandler after the pair appeared as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter.

But ‘Notorious’ isn’t currently in the USADA drug testing pool, and no date has been set for that fight.

A McGregor-Chandler showdown now seems unlikely, with the former featherweight and lightweight champion calling out Gaethje.

In a second tweet, McGregor said: “I’m the real BMF, he can fight for pennies if he wants but I want spirits, I call the shots, I’m in it to launch shots, f**k Chandler, you want it call for it.”

Gaethje’s highlight reel knockout win sees the 34-year-old claim the BMF (Bad Mother F***er) belt. It’s a symbolic title, but one which could propel him towards another shot at the 155-pound belt.

Current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev is defending the belt against Charles Oliveira in October, and despite Alex Volkanovski calling for the winner, Gaethje believes he’s next in line.

“I want to fight for the world championship,” Gaethje said. “These guys are fighting in October, and I want to prove I’m the best in the world.”

The result leaves Poirier at something of a crossroads.

An 11-year, 29 fight UFC veteran, he’s 1-2 in his two fights since consecutive wins over McGregor.

When he’s on, Poirier is a world beater, but has fallen short in title fights against Khabib Nurmagomedov and Oliveira.

At 34, he’s a massive star and remains a drawcard, but must be wondering how long he has left in the sport.

Earlier on the UFC 291 card, Aussie Jake Matthews scored a second round submission win over Darrius Flowers.

In a wild round and a half, Flowers pretended to be hurt before nearly landing a one-two combination. Flowers then crumbled to the mat in the second round, claiming to have been hit with a low blow.

Replays show Matthews’ front kick connected with Flowers’ stomach initially, while his heel made contact with the cup.

The referee paused the action momentarily, allowing Flowers to recover, before Matthews finished it later in the round with a rear-naked choke.

Relive all the live action here.

UFC 291 HIGHLIGHTS AND RESULTS

Round Two:

IT’S ALL OVER!!!

Justin Gaethje claims the BMF belt with a STUNNING second round headkick that flatlined Dustin Poirier.

OUTRAGEOUS.

Poirier had blocked a right high kick in the first round, but couldn’t get his hand up in time for this one. In a carbon copy finish of Leon Edwards’ knockout of Kamaru Usman - which was in the same venue - Gaethje left Poirier clutching at air.

Round One:

Poirier targeted the body early, while Gaethje threw a few nice leg kicks and was dangerous with his jab.

Gaethje fought brilliantly through the first three minutes, taking his time and setting up shots. But he was caught on his left eye with just over a minute left in the round and was visibly compromised.

Gaethje backed up and even got a little wild as Poirier came on strong.

Pereira wins light heavyweight debut

In his debut at 205 pounds, former middleweight champion Alex Pereira has scored a close split decision win over Jan Blachowicz.

After a tough first round, Pereira fought back to claim a 29-28 29-28 29-28 victory and set up a shot at the vacant light-heavyweight title.

Blachowicz dominated the opening five minutes, taking Pereira’s back early and looking for a submission.

The former light heavyweight champion landed another takedown in the second and again and it looked like being a carbon copy of the first.

But, the Salt Lake City altitude got to him, and Pereira came back strongly, entering the third with all the momentum, winning the round on two of three scorecards.

Derrick Lewis goes viral with flying knee

Derrick Lewis just knocked out Marcos Rogerio de Lima in 30 seconds, starting with a flying knee.

Fan favourite Lewis created another viral post-fight moment, when he again took his fight shorts off, leaving commentator Joe Rogan in hysterics.

In similar scenes to Jorge Masvidal’s win over Ben Askren, Lewis leaped across the cage with a knee just two seconds into the bout.

Lima hit the deck, tried to cover up and get back into it, but referee Dan Miragliotta stopped it after 32 seconds.

Throwing back to one of his most popular celebrations, Lewis then took off his fight shorts. He later threw his protective cup and gloves into the crowd.

Asked whether the flying knee was planned, Lewis deadpanned: “Hell no. I just thought I’d throw some bullshit and it landed.”

The win snaps a three-fight losing streak for Lewis, including a 2022 defeat to Tai Tuivasa.

Tony Ferguson falls to another loss

The sad decline of 39-year-old Tony Ferguson continues with another loss, this time to Bobby Green.

Green locked in a head and arm choke late in the third and final round of their lightweight showdown, forcing the stoppage with just seconds left in the fight.

There was confusion around the finish as Ferguson refused to tap out. Many thought the referee allowed the choke to be locked in slightly too long before the fight was stopped.

Ferguson arguably had the better of the early striking exchanges, rattling Green midway through the first round with a right hand, before copping a bad eye poke.

As the crowd chanted his name, the cageside doctor checked Ferguson’s eye before the bout resumed. Ferguson didn’t even take half of the five minutes he was permitted to recover from the illegal manoeuvre.

Ferguson tried one of his trademark bizarre takedown attempts in the second, but ended up in a shocking position, allowing Green to dominate the round.

They say power is the last thing to go, and Ferguson remained dangerous throughout, and caught Green a few times, but couldn’t find the finish.

The result is Ferguson’s sixth straight defeat going back to May 2020. In fairness to the former interim lightweight champion, he has pretty much only fought elite fighters in that run, and has often shown glimpses of what made him so great.

You have to wonder whether better match-making could have seen the final years of his career go better, leading to questions of who is advising him.

‘El Cucuy’ was stopped by Justin Gaethje, Charles Oliveira, Michael Chandler and Nate Diaz, leaving memories of his wins over the likes of Anthony Pettis, Rafael dos Anjos and Edson Barboza in the distant past.

Holland slices through Chiesa

What a way to start the PPV!

Kevin Holland outstruck, then submitted jiu jitsu wizard Michael Chiesa in the first round with a D’arce choke.

A 17-fight UFC veteran, Chiesa had been out of action for 12 months before running into a rampant Holland.

Holland stunned Chiesa a few times in the striking battle, before locking in the choke.

“When Mike feels like he’s in danger, he does bad things,” Holland said afterwards. “I was able to take advantage of that.”

After campaigning at middleweight, Holland dropped to welterweight for his last six fights, but says if he doesn’t get a shot at the BMF belt at 170, he wants to move back to 185-pounds.

“I like to eat steaks, have sex and make weight,” he said.

Classy tribute to Sinéad O’Connor

The music world lost a legend last week when Irish singer Sinéad O’Connor passed away at 56.

While she rose to fame in the ‘90s, O’Connor holds a rare and memorable place in UFC history.

At UFC 189 in 2015, as Conor McGregor was nearing the height of his fame, O’Connor performed his walkout song - the Irish folk ballad ‘Foggy Dew’ - live at the MGM Grand. It was the first time the UFC had allowed live walkout tracks to be sung.

McGregor’s opponent that night, Chad Mendes, walked out to Aaron Lewis singing ‘Country Boy’ before McGregor earned a come from behind second round TKO win to claim the interim featherweight title.

The UFC played a moving tribute video to O’Connor, commemorating her McGregor walkout, at the start of the UFC 291 prelims in Salt Lake City.

Jake Matthews wins wild brawl

10:25am - Jake Matthews won a second round submission victory over late-notice replacement Darrius Flowers, and when we say it was all action, we’re not joking.

The first bizarre moment came with 90 seconds remaining in the opening round when Matthews seemed to rattle Flowers with a straight right hand. Flowers staggered, and looked set to fall over. As Matthews went in for the finish, Flowers - who had been faking - threw a big right hand, and finished the round in a dominant position with a takedown.

Just seconds into the second round, Flowers collapsed to the ground, claiming he’d been kicked low. But replays showed Matthews’ foot connecting squarely with Flowers’ stomach.

“That’s clean, that’s clean. It touched low, but it touched low after impact,” Joe Rogan said in commentary as the crowd rained down boos. “That is toes digging into the gut. That’s a clean shot.”

There was widespread confusion as the referee called timeout and the cageside doctor was called in to assess Flowers.

The 26-year-old Matthews absolutely dominated the rest of the second round, securing mount, raining down punches and looking for submissions.

We eventually got to the right result when Matthews locked in a rear-naked choke and forced Flowers to tap out.

“If the referee says it’s too low, it’s too low, that’s on me,” Matthews said afterwards. “We knew he’d put on the pressure in the early round, we just had to ride that out.”

While Rogan and fellow commentator, UFC legend Daniel Cormier, both thought it wasn’t a low blow, the general reaction was split. Many fighters took to social media to say it’s still a low blow despite the kick hitting the stomach first.

9:30am - Miranda Maverick gets the show started with a dominant third round submission win over Priscilla Cachoeira. Maverick dominated the entire fight, with Cachoeira even resorting to a few questionable tactics (fence and glove grabbing, possibly an eye-poke).

VOLK’S BOLD BMF PREDICTION

Alex Volkanovski will be watching today’s action closely, with the outcome potentially having an impact on his future.

The featherweight champion discussed the fight and the fallout last week.

“I’ve got Dustin Poirier. It’s going to go pretty similar to the first one,” he said. “If Gaethje can do it, it’s going to be early. The longer the fight goes, the more chance Dustin wins it.”

The winner of today’s main event puts themselves right in line for a shot at the lightweight title, but Volkanovski believes he should get the first shot at the winner of Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira’s rematch in October.

“I think it makes sense (I get the lightweight title fight), I really do believe I’m the only one who can test (Islam) and beat him,” he said. “I plan on going out there and taking that belt from him.

“I don’t see him losing to anyone. They’re great fighters, but (Poirier and Gaethje) had their chances against Khabib (Nurmagomedov) and I think Islam’s just as good as Khabib, maybe an even better striker.

“Khabib’s very strong in the grappling, but when it comes to the striking, Islam’s very calculated, and he doesn’t take too many unnecessary risks. I think he’s going to have the right game plan for guys like that and he can make it look reasonably easy.

“That’s no disrespect to them, that’s just how good Islam is. People are going to want me to be the guy, they’re going to want that rematch.”

What time is UFC 291 in Australia?

The UFC 291 early prelims start at 9am AEST, with the prelims kicking off at 10am.

The main card begins at 12pm, and expect the main event to get underway at around 2pm.

How to watch UFC 291?

The two-fight early prelims are available exclusively on UFC Fight Pass, and the prelims - featuring Aussie Jake Matthews - can be seen on ESPN and Kayo Sports.

The pay-per-view portion of the card is available on Main Event and Kayo.

UFC 291 Fight card and results

Main Card: 

Justin Gaethje def dustin Poirier via Rd 2 KO (headkick)
Alex Pereira def Jan Blachowicz via SD
Derrick Lewis def Marcos Rogerio de Lima via Rd 1 TKO
Bobby Green def Tony Ferguson via Rd 3 Sub (head and arm choke)
Kevin Holland def Michael Chiesa via Rd 1 Sub (D’arce choke)

Prelim Card:

Gabriel Bonfim def Trevin Giles via Rd 1 Sub (guillotine)
CJ Vergara def Vinicius Salvador via UD (29-28 x 3)
Roman Kopylov def Claudio Ribeiro via Rd 2 KO (head kick)
Jake Matthews def Darrius Flowers via Rd 2 Sub (RNC)

Early Prelim Card: 

Uros Medic def Matthew Semelsberger via Rd 3 TKO
Miranda Maverick def Priscilla Cachoeira via Rd 3 Sub (arm bar)

NOTE: Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson’s welterweight showdown with Michael Pereira has been scrapped after Pereira missed weight by three pounds.

Jake Matthews finds newfound strength in Islam

Victorian veteran Jake Matthews has been fighting in the UFC for nearly 10 years, and will feature on the prelims today.

He takes on late-notice welterweight replacement Darrius Flowers, and spoke to this masthead about how he’s found new strength from a surprise outlet: Islam.

Read more about Matthews’ conversions here. 

How to watch Errol Spence vs Terence Crawford?

It’s a massive day for fight fans with boxing’s welterweight showdown between Errol Spence and Terence Crawford also on today.

Spence-Crawford gets underway from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas at 10am AEST.

You can order the pay per view on Main Event and Kayo Sports here!