Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier built up a lot of goodwill prior to their non-title fight at UFC 257 in January, but that appears to be gone.
The two lightweight fighters lashed out at each other on social media Sunday, less than three months ahead of their scheduled trilogy bout at UFC 264 on July 10. The source of the back-and-forth is actually what brought them together at the beginning of the year: a donation from McGregor to Poirier’s charity, The Good Fight Foundation.
Prior to UFC 257, McGregor said he would donate $500,000 to Poirier’s charity and that it would go toward building a gym for disadvantaged youth in Poirier’s hometown of Lafayette, Louisiana. On Sunday, Poirier accused McGregor of ignoring his attempts to reach out about the donation after the fight, which Poirier won via second-round TKO.
“That’s a fun prediction!” wrote Poirier, in reference to a knockout prediction from McGregor. “You also predicted a donation to my foundation and you and your team stopped responding after the fight in January. See you soon.”
McGregor, who drew praise for his philanthropic efforts in Ireland during the coronavirus pandemic, acknowledged in a response to Poirier he had not yet made a donation, but claimed he was waiting for details on how the money would be used.
“A donation, not a debt,” McGregor wrote on Twitter. “We’ve been awaiting the plans for the money that never came. I do with all my donations. Know where it’s going dot for dot. Otherwise it goes walking. As is the case with a lot of these foundations, sadly. You took the McG over the belt shows I was right.”
McGregor’s agent, Audie Attar, also responded to Poirier’s accusation on Twitter, and appeared to indicate the donation would still be made.
Poirier’s foundation is well known within the MMA community. Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov also made a donation in 2019. Among other ventures, the foundation has built a playground for special needs children and provided backpacks to schools.
On Monday morning, McGregor went so far as to say the trilogy bout against Poirier was off, and he would “fight someone else on the 10th.” In another post eight minutes later, however, he threatened Poirier would pay for his comments with his physical well-being.
The series between McGregor and Poirier currently stands at 1-1. McGregor scored a first-round knockout over Poirier when they were both featherweights in 2014. Poirier avenged that loss in the rematch in January.