Manny Pacquiao Teaches Conor McGregor Important Lesson In Fighting

Manny Pacquiao may have given Conor McGregor an important lesson about dealing with old foes and losing a fight.

McGregor didn’t manage to prolong his impressive UFC return run after suffering a devastating KO loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.

Prior to McGregor’s previous UFC comeback in January of last year, it can be recalled that the MMA star has expressed his desire to take on Pacquiao in a boxing match. However, the loss to Poirier may have derailed that much-awaited encounter.

While Pacquiao hasn’t officially closed the doors yet for a potential fight with McGregor, his recent comments strongly suggest the Irish fighter should gather himself together and make another sensational return.

"Losing is part of the game,” Pacquiao recently told Philippine news outlet ABS-CBN of McGregor’s defeat to Poirier. “In sports, there are winners and losers, that's all. It is not about defeat, but about how you accept defeat in your life: you get over that difficult time in your life.”

"[Conor] McGregor had already beaten his rival [Poirier] before and I think that made him underestimate him," he added.

Before facing Poirier, McGregor hasn’t stepped inside the Octagon in more than a year. As expected, “Notorious” blamed “inactivity” as the main reason for his apparent decline.

According to UFC legend and ESPN analyst Chael Sonnen, the former two-division UFC champ was right about pointing out that the long lay-off drastically affected his performance.

“There is a very thin line between a reason and an excuse,” Sonnen said on his YouTube channel. “Conor stated the reason why he lost was his inactivity; I accept that and don’t believe it was an excuse. I believe that was a spot-on assessment.”

“The Conor McGregor that we saw out there was the worst form of Conor we’ve ever seen,” he continued. “He was out of shape, his timing was off, he was slow, he was unpowerful and he also looked scrawny. I admit the last time he fought he was up a weight class but he looked scrawny and weak by Conor’s standards.”

Poirier and McGregor are now even and some fans are clamoring for a trilogy fight. However, “The Diamond” may have been eyeing bigger things at the moment.

“I think all depends on what Dustin wants,” Poirier’s coach Mike Brown told MMA Fighting. “Obviously it was big. It was the second-biggest pay-per-view of all time. That’s certainly a reason. They are split 1-1, so it does make sense in some ways.”

“But really what Dustin is fighting for is to be the world champion,” he added. “I know really what he wants more than anything else is to have that undisputed world champion title to his name.”