Proving yet again that he belongs at the top of the stacked UFC lightweight division, Dustin Poirier knocked out dangerous up-and-coming prospect Benoit Saint-Denis in the second round at their UFC 299 clash on Saturday.

Interestingly, both men have French connections. Saint-Denis hails from France while Poirier is a proud Cajun, originally French settlers in Canada, who relocated to Louisiana in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, which ‘Diamond’ spoke about in the post-fight press conference.

“There’s a lot of French in Acadiana where I live in Lafayette. My dad speaks fluent French, you know. A lot of the Cajuns in Acadiana came from French Canada, you know we got kicked out and relocated to Louisiana,” Poirier said after his excellent victory.

Saint-Denis, who had stopped his five previous opponents was the favorite going into the fight against Poirier, who fought in his thirtieth UFC bout at UFC 299. And while this was seemingly vindicated in the first round, which the Frenchman dominated, Poirier proved his class in the second round, which drew praise from an unlikely source: Conor McGregor.

Poirier takes shot at Conor McGregor despite ‘Mac’s praise

And after their fight, Poirier’s old rival Conor McGregor took to Twitter and praised ‘BSD’ and Poirier for their thrilling fight which saw Poirier rally back for a knockout after being outclassed by the Frenchman in the first round.

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“Great fight out of them French boys tonight! Toutes nos félicitation @DustinPoirier @BenoitSt_Denis @EmmanuelMacron,” ‘Mac’ tweeted.

Poirier was asked about his thoughts on McGregor’s tweet, and had a feisty response “Yeah? Well, he felt that right hook, too,” a reference to Poirier knocking out the Irishman at their UFC 257 clash. ‘Diamond’ and ‘Mac’ have fought three times. McGregor won their first clash at UFC 178, while Poirier won the UFC 257 rematch.

Their 2021, UFC 264 trilogy fight was the last time Conor McGregor fought in the UFC and was the fateful fight where the Irishman snapped his leg, and has been out for nearly three years since, with no clarity around the timeline of his comeback. And despite McGregor tipping his hat to him, Poirier’s comments show there is still animosity between them. What do you think about Poirier’s response to McGregor?

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