Michael Chandler Does Not Believe Dustin Poirier Would Have Run Through Conor McGregor Had the Fight Continued After Round 1

The trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier was supposed to be the decider. But because of the horrific leg injury that McGregor suffered at the end of round one, the rivalry lives on. Plenty of fighters and experts gave their opinion on the fight and what would have happened if McGregor hadn’t broken his leg. In a recent interview with TheMacLife, former lightweight title contender, Michael Chandler, gave his take on the fight.

‘Iron’ Chandler said, “A lot of people say Dustin was just gonna run through him. I don’t know if Dustin necessarily runs through him. You know Chad Mendes ran through Conor and then Chad Mendes lost that fight. Conor is better than we think he is a lot of times in dealing with the early on slot and the early adversity and the early take down and early wrestling and grappling. He is good at it that’s when obviously he broke his freakin leg. It didn’t look good, Poirier was pouring it on him, but man, I just wanted to see that fight more as a fan.”

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Michael Chandler continued, “I wanted to see at least another round or two rounds of those guys fighting. I think Poirier wins that fight, I think Poirier would have won that fight. But I don’t think you can necessarily say because of that first round he would have smashed him.”

Michael Chandler believes ‘The Notorious’ is good at dealing with adversity. Therefore, he feels it’s unfair to judge whether the Irishman would have lost the fight after just one round. As MMA is unlike other sports, the tides can turn in a blink of an eye. Hence, it’s fair to say that anything can happen till the very last second of the bout.

Conor McGregor pulled his greatest comeback against Chad Mendes

‘The Notorious’ has proven time and time again that he is capable of pulling a comeback after suffering adversity. He showed this capability in a fight against Chad Mendes back in 2015. This was an interim championship bout where Mendes was grinding ‘The Notorious’ in the wrestling department. Mendes secured three takedowns in the first, which had him leading on the judges’ scorecard.

The second round was no different, as ‘Money’ controlled McGregor on the back for almost the entire round. In the last forty seconds of the round, Conor McGregor got back on his feet and closed the show at the culmination of round two. It was McGregor’s first performance where he showed a heart of a champion and turned the outcome of the fight.

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If it wasn’t for the injury, would McGregor have done the same at UFC 264  ?