‘You Need People Like Me’- Conor McGregor Embraces the Bad Guy Persona Following His Loss at UFC 264

Former UFC dual division champion Conor McGregor suffered a ghastly ankle injury during the headlining trilogy clash with Dustin Poirier at UFC 264. The match ended rather early as he was declared unable to continue further after round 1. Poirier thus won the fight via TKO (doctor stoppage).

This fight was built up as one of the most anticipated of the year, especially after their rematch at UFC 257. That fight too, had ended with the victory of Poirier via TKO.

Whenever there is a fight involving the ‘Notorious’ one, it always has trash-talking and intense build-up prior to it. He has made a career out of using these tactics to get through the head of his opponents.

And unlike the last time at UFC 257, where there was an unusual calm surrounding McGregor, it was at full fore this time around. In the build-up to their fight, McGregor used every possible way to distract the ‘Diamond’.

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He even targeted the latter’s wife, Jolie, in his trash talk and he received a lot of flak for this on social media. But unlike their meeting in 2014, where the pressure got the better of Poirier, this time, it didn’t work.

Although McGregor (22-6) lost and got injured, he still continued his rants on Poirier. He later took to Instagram and shared a pic of him carried out on a stretcher and captioned it, “You need people like me.”

This could mean only one thing- he won’t stop his bad guy persona anytime soon.

Conor McGregor claims it’s not over

After the fight, when UFC commentator and analyst Joe Rogan approached McGregor for the interview, he continued firing shots at Poirier, albeit this time via verbal jabs.

“This is not over!” McGregor said. “I was boxing the bleeding head off him, kicking the bleeding leg off. This is not over. If I have to take this outside for him, it’s all outside, I don’t give a bollocks.”

With this win, Poirier has certainly grabbed an opportunity to face the current lightweight champion, Charles Oliveira. Meanwhile, McGregor would need surgery and rehabilitation before he even thinks about getting back inside the cage.

What’s your opinion on McGregor’s bad guy persona?

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