The boxing world is dancing on Conor McGregor’s grave after a loss to Dustin Poirier that has killed the Irish megastar’s boxing career off for good.
McGregor was brutally humbled by the American in the UFC 257 main event and was spotted walking to his press conference on crutches after having his front leg chopped up by a barrage of leg kicks.
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Having had just one win in the UFC since 2016, McGregor’s UFC career is hanging by a thread. With the shine coming off his MMA aura of invincibility, his boxing career is done.
The boxing world on Sunday night (AEDT) laughed off McGregor’s reported interest in returning to boxing.
Just last week McGregor said talks for a megafight with boxing icon Manny Pacquiao are “intensifying” — a fight that promoters had estimated could be worth $250 million.
ESPN UFC expert Ariel Helwani says that fight is now dead in the water as McGregor’s reputation suffered its biggest blow in his entire career.
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He said McGregor’s path is to pull the trigger on a trilogy fight with Nate Diaz, while a showdown with Tony Ferguson is another juicy option.
“Does this hurt his drawing power, absolutely,” Helwani told ESPN.
“Does it put those dreams of fighting Manny Pacquiao on ice, absolutely.”
Pacquiao sent McGregor a message before the fight, suggesting the pair “make 2021 the best year ever for fight fans”. Hours later his message was very different.
“Beautiful thing about the fight game, anything can happen! Congrats to @DustinPoirier Huge win,” he wrote on Twitter.
The boxing world knows Conor is done as a cross-over combat sports phenom too.
Legend Floyd Mayweather led the ripping of McGregor, labelling him a “con-artist”.
Mayweather posted on his Instagram account: “I seen this post and my take on it is that the world knows Con Artist McLoser can steal everything from me and be loved but I’m hated,” he wrote.
“That just lets you all know that racism still exist.”
“Just know, that bum will never be me or be on my level,” he added.
“I’m just built different, my mindset is on another planet, my skills are second to none, I’m a natural born winner and yes I talk a lot of trash, but every time I back it up.”
He also laughed off Conor’s Pacquiao hopes.
“Connor cannot even win in his own sport, but talking about coming back to boxing to fight Pacquiao. Nobody wants to see that, it’s like my leftovers eating leftovers,” he said.
Then the pile on began.
YouTube star turned boxing prospect Jake Paul also openly mocked McGregor in an Instagram video, where he said his offer of $50 million to fight McGregor was now off the table.
He is instead offering The Notorious $10,000 to make the fight happen.
This is the reflection of how dented McGregor’s reputation is.
According to reports, McGregor’s return to the Octagon for the first time in 12 months was already a step down from his previous monster fight purses.
McGregor was reportedly guaranteed $5 million for the Poirier fight — and was expected to earn more than $20 million by the time his share of the pay-per-view buys rolled in.
This was already down from the reported $30 million he took away from his 40-second KO of Donald Cerrone.
It’s a long way back to the top.
