UFC Notebook: Poirier, McGregor Spar Over Promised $500K Donation

Before their rematch at UFC 257 in January, Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier built more of a friendly rivalry than a heated feud. Much of that goodwill came from McGregor’s promise to donate $500,000 to The Good Fight Foundation, Poirier’s personal charity.

On Sunday, Poirier accused McGregor of never making that donation, an accusation that has led to a war of words between the two fighters and their camps.

McGregor, Poirier trade accusations over donation

Poirier made the dispute public on Sunday in response to a McGregor prediction that he would win their trilogy fight – planned for UFC 264 on July 10 – by knockout.

“That’s a fun prediction!” Poirier wrote on Twitter. “You also predicted a donation to my foundation and you and your team stopped responding after the fight in January. See you soon. July 10th paid in full!”

McGregor responded by saying his team held up the money because they weren’t clear on how Poirier planned to use it.

“A donation, not a debt,” McGregor wrote. “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.”

Poirier then disputed that account, saying that McGregor’s team never responded to emails about the process of distributing the funds. That prompted another response from McGregor on Monday.

“My team does their due diligence to make sure every donation meets the mark,” McGregor wrote. “My generosity is known. You will pay with your brain for this attempt at smearing my name.”

McGregor then threatened to fight someone else at UFC 264.

“You f—ing brain dead hillbilly,” McGregor wrote. “500k with no plan in place. Ye hang tight. Fool. You must be new to money. The fight is off BTW. I’m going to fight someone else on the 10th.”

Vettori hands Holland second loss in three weeks

Marvin Vettori copied the Derek Brunson playbook to hand Kevin Holland his second loss in just three weeks, landing repeated takedowns to win an easy unanimous decision in the main event of UFC on ABC 2 on Saturday night. Vettori won 50-44 on all three cards.

Holland took the fight on just nine days notice after Darren Till broke his collarbone and withdrew from the bout. He had no answers for a strong takedown game, as Vettori took Holland to the mat 11 times to set a new UFC middleweight record. That total matched the number of takedowns Vettori had landed in his nine-fight UFC career prior to Saturday.

“I wanted to finish this guy and I wasn’t able to,” Vettori said afterward. “But it was a dominant win … I’m not the happiest right now, but I keep winning. I keep progressing.”

Sterling undergoing neck surgery

UFC banatamweight champion Aljamain Sterling will undergo neck surgery on Thursday in order to deal with an existing medical issue that has plagued him for a decade. Sterling won the title on March 6 by disqualification when Petr Yan landed an illegal knee while Sterling was grounded. The UFC plans to book a rematch, and Sterling says that fight could still happen this year.

“They told me I will heal in three months, and can start doing cardio to get myself ready,” Sterling told ESPN. “They wouldn’t want to see me take a fight until they see everything has fused in my neck correctly. Five months would be ideal, if I heal up really quick.”