Dustin Poirier scoffs at Conor McGregor’s UFC 303 withdrawal: ‘Dude, a pinky toe?’

The Dustin Poirier vs. Conor McGregor feud lives on.

At UFC 303, McGregor was supposed to make his long-awaited return to the cage in a five-round main event fight against Michael Chandler. However, two weeks prior to the event, McGregor withdrew from the card, citing a broken pinky toe. McGregor’s reason for pulling out of the fight received plenty of criticism, and while former foe Dustin Poirier wants to be give “Notorious” the benefit of the doubt, he agrees with the critics.

“Dude, a pinky toe?” Poirier said on The MMA Hour. “I’ve fought with so many injuries. Like Conor said he fought with a lot of injuries, I’ve fought with a lot of injuries over the years, but a pinky toe doesn’t seem like a reason to pull out of a fight. But also, giving him his respect, I don’t know the severity of it. Did he damage ligaments, is it the muscle in his foot? There’s a lot of stuff going on inside of a foot, there’s a lot of small bones, so I don’t know. If it’s just a pinky toe, I think that’s not a reason to pull out of a fight.”

Poirier and McGregor have a long history together. They first met in 2014 when McGregor knocked Poirier out at UFC 178 at featherweight. Seven years later, the two rematched up a weight class in the main event of UFC 257 and this time, Poirier was the one to knock out McGregor. This set up a trilogy fight at 264, where Poirier once again won, this time when McGregor suffered a devastating leg injury.

While Poirier and McGregor had mostly been on good terms heading into the rematch, things deteriorated prior to the third bout, in part surrounding a promised donation to Poirier’s charity. Then things took a dark turn afterward the bout when McGregor lashed out at Poirier and his family, even threatening to kill Poirier and his wife. Even after the event, McGregor continued to double down on his feud with Poirier, and so given the animosity, “The Diamond” is prepared to run things back with McGregor, should the opportunity arise.

“He crossed lines you can’t come back from,” Poirier said.

“I want to whip his ass. ... The other day I saw him say something. He’s trying to bring that out in me. He wants me to fire back. I just go about my day. ... [But] of course I want to say something right back and try to set up a fight with him. But it is what it is.”

McGregor still has not fought since his most recent bout with Poirier back in 2021. Poirier, on the other hand, recently fell short in his lightweight title bit, losing by fifth-round submission to Islam Makhachev at UFC 302.