Dustin Poirier Explains How He Hurt His Knee Checking Kicks From Conor McGregor

Mandatory Credit: Jeff Bottari - Zuffa LLC

Former interim UFC lightweight champion, Dustin 'The Diamond' Poirier has claimed that he left UFC 264 fight week, experiencing pain in his knee for the first time in his professional career, as a result of checking furious leg kick attempts from rival, Conor McGregor during their single round trilogy bout last month.

Poirier, who prevailed victoriously, managed to take home an opening round doctor's stoppage TKO victory over the Dubliner, who was left unable to continue between the first and second round, having suffered a quite gruesome fracture of his left tibia with just seconds remaining in the first frame. 

Whilst attempting to identify the exact exchange where McGregor suffered his leg fracture, Poirier initially claimed that he had checked one of McGregor's early leg kick attempts, to which he pointed at in acknowledgment, however, the Dubliner was quick to refute those claims, quite vehemently.

McGregor's head coach, John Kavanagh explained post-fight how it appears his student suffered the initial injury off the back of a left teep kick to the body, where the American Top Team trainee appeared to shell and block the strike with his right elbow as McGregor struck.

Straight Blast Gym mainstay, McGregor remains in Beverly Hills following recent surgery -- expected to remain sidelined for at least a year according to UFC president, Dana White.

Reflecting on his victory, Poirier explained how his right knee was quite painful as a result of checking kicks from the 33-year-old at UFC 264.

"I've been checked by a lot of heavy kickers, but never before have I left fight week and been sore on my actual bone like my knee was sore," Poirier said during a recent appearance on the Punchin' In podcast. "Not my thigh or calf, my knee was sore."

"I just know from getting kicked and kicking so many times over the years that when a kick lands bad I just know it kind of hurts both of us even though it's hitting my knee, it hurts the other guy a lot more," Poirier explained. "Just from sparring rounds I just know. There was one kick I turned my knee out a little bit. I didn't have my weight like a traditional check and I knew that was a bad one for him (Conor McGregor). I knew that one hurt him."

Despite McGregor's claims that his leg kick attempts were not checked by Poirier, the Louisianan disagrees, explaining how the former was kicking with some considerable force, and how many of them landed on his own knee.

"I think it was on top of his foot, but you never know if that could have caused torque on his shinbone and cracked it," Poirier continued. "I don't know, he was throwing hard kicks, and a lot of them were hitting my knee. I didn't get to traditionally check the kicks but I did turn my knee out and it was bone-on-bone and it was worse for him." (H/T MMA Fighting)