The first time Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier faced each other in the octagon was back in 2018. The two had one of the greatest fights in the history of the UFC, full of ups and downs. Poirier emerged victorious after referee Herb Dean stopped the bout in the fourth round as Gaethje seemed knocked out on his feet. Fans had been raring for a rematch between the two, which they finally got at UFC 291 last week.
The bout was a brief affair, lasting only two rounds, but did deliver one of the most memorable knockouts in recent UFC history. Gaethje knocked out Poirier with a head kick in the second round to win the BMF belt. And this seemed to have brought out of the child in the ever-excitable Joe Rogan, who discussed the bout with middleweight contender Jared Cannonier on his podcast.
Joe Rogan in awe of Justin Gaethje’s head-kick knockout of Poirier
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Rogan was joined by #3 ranked UFC middleweight Jared Cannonier on episode 144 of the JRE MMA Show. The duo kicked off the podcast by praising Justin Gaethje’s head-kick knockout of Dustin Poirier. “What a f***ing crazy couple of weeks of fight it has been, man, it’s so much to talk about, you know? This last main event. Oh my God, I’m still like in shock [over] the Justin Gaethje head kick knockout [of] Dustin Poirier I’m like Oh my god,” a wide-eyed Rogan told Cannonier.
‘The Killa Gorilla’ agreed and told Rogan he had been expecting an exciting fight. He was impressed with ‘The Highlight’s execution of the spectacular head-kick.“I mean, we all knew that fight was going to be something. Something big was going to happen in that fight. So when it did and how it happened, it was beautiful, beautiful execution of that technique by Justin Gaethje to get that head kick off. It was beautiful,” he said.
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Joe Rogan points out the similarity between Poirier and Usman’s knockout
Rogan also pointed out the co-incidence that Gaethje’s head-kick knockout of Poirier was very similar to Leon Edwards’ head-kick knockout of Kamaru Usman and happened at the same venue. “It was a direct mirror image of the Leon Edwards kick, on the opposite side, in the same place. Crazy. Crazy!” the 55-year-old reiterated excitedly. Cannonier defeated Marvin Vettori by unanimous decision in the undercard of the Gaethje-Poirier rematch and has won four out of his last five fights. This victory has brought him one step closer to a second title shot.
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The list of things that can make Joe Rogan as excited as discussing a good knockout is short. And it was a pretty impressive knockout, all things considered. There have been only a handful of head-kick knockouts in the history of the UFC, and this one was just as shocking as Edwards’ knockout of Usman or Holly Holm‘s head-kick knockout of Ronda Rousey. What do you think about the knockout? Let us know in the comments section below.
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