UFC 264: McGregor's Latest Jab At Poirier May Hint Beef Has Become Too Personal

The feud between UFC rivals Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier has already started ahead of Saturday’s UFC 264 rubber match.

UFC 264 has become one of the most talked-about events of this year because of the ongoing UFC rivalry between McGregor and Poirier. But their recent comments may have suggested that there’s more to it than just winning their third fight against each other.

During the pair’s face-off at the UFC 264 ceremonial weigh-ins, McGregor told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan that Poirier disrespected his “kindness,” seemingly referring to the controversy surrounding his alleged botched donation to his opponent’s charity.

“Joe, in 16 hours time, this man is going to learn that if you disrespect a person’s kindness and take it as a weakness, you must pay,” McGregor said. “Tomorrow night, I’m going to make this man pay with his life and I mean it. You’re dead in that Octagon tomorrow night.”

It can be recalled that Poirier claimed McGregor and his team suddenly “stopped responding” amid discussions over the $500,000 the latter promised to donate to Poirier’s Good Fight Foundation ahead of their January rematch. The two exchanged heated words after Poirier claimed McGregor reneged on the promise, causing the latter to instead donate half a million dollars to the Boys & Girls Club in Louisiana.

McGregor recently set the record straight on the donation controversy in an interview with BT Sport.

“I went with a reputable charity in the area,” the former two-division champ explained. “I had said I was gonna donate. Like I said it originally started as like a charity event. It was gonna be a charity event and the profits off of the event were gonna go to charity. So when the fight actually got announced, when we made it under the UFC banner, then I kept it up. I said, 'I'll still help you out. I'll still give you the digo'. And then you know, it is what it is.”

“I'm happy where it's gone,” he continued. “It's gone to the Boys and Girls Club of Academia. And not to just some random MMA gym for profit which is essentially what the attempt was."

The bad blood between McGregor and Poirier also appeared to get worse after the Irishman dragged the latter’s wife, Jolie, into their feud.

Earlier in the week, McGregor posted a screenshot of an apparent Instagram message request from Jolie. During their UFC 264 press conference Thursday night, McGregor said “your wife is your husband” and then tried to start a “Jolie’s wife” chant aimed at Poirier.

Poirier then took aim at McGregor on Twitter by commenting, “Your trash talk is as thin as your hair these days! See ya soon champ champ,” on a photo of the Irish fighter.

McGregor replied, “Your wife wants to see the hair around my d--k and b---s bro. See what that’s like. It’s real the message request mate, no trash talk. Man to man. It’s f---ked up! I seen your interview with Mike you think it was fake. It’s not. Have a think on it in the sauna anyway.”

Commenting on his opponent's claims, Poirier said that McGregor’s screenshot was “fabricated” and was just part of the trash-talking in the lead-up to a big fight.

“If it was real and my wife was messaging him or something like that then it's a good move,” Poirier told Michael Bisping in a recent interview. “But if it's fabricated or ... so you know, me and my wife were laughing about it yesterday when I was at the grocery store. But it's just ... there's no holds barred in the s--t-talking.”