Biggest Winners, Loser From UFC 264

UFC 264 went down last night (Sat., July 10, 2021) from inside T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, with a packed house of fans, who all saw Dustin Poirier get a technical knockout win over Conor McGregor after “Notorious” suffered a break in his leg in the first round (see it again here). In the co-headlining act, Gilbert Burns defeated Stephen Thompson in a pivotal fight at Welterweight (recap here).

Biggest Winner: Dustin Poirier

Granted, Poirier didn’t get his second win over McGregor the way he would’ve even though he was dominating the opening round. In fact, two judges had him up 10-8 after five crazy minutes:

Indeed, Poirier earned the victory (and his win bonus) and perhaps a shot at the Lightweight title, leaving “Sin City” with a victory over “Notorious” even if it was far from ideal. Another reason “Diamond” is the biggest winner is that aside from all the positives I mentioned, the way the fight ended all but secures perhaps another fight against McGregor in the future. The hatred between the two men obviously runs deep, even more so after this third fight because the two men were still jawing at each other while Poirier was celebrating and the medical staff was tending to McGregor. And if you know just how much Dana White loves him some “Notorious,” he will obviously use the injury as a legit reason to give McGregor another crack at Poirier down the line.

Runner Up: Tai Tuivasa

After suffering three straight losses, Tuivasa has now won three in a row. His most recent win came last night after he drilled Greg Hardy with a nasty shot the dropped him, allowing him to go in for the kill with a heavy dosage of ground-and-pound. And this was after “Bam Bam” himself was stunned by a powerful shot from the former NFL lineman. With a win over Hardy, the shoey-drinking Tuivasa can possibly expect a move into the Top 15. If not, he’s getting that much closer to making the cut for the first time in his career.

Honorable Mention: Ilia Topuria

Topuria remained undefeated (11-0, 3-0 UFC) last night, picking up the biggest win of his young mixed martial arts (MMA) career against Ryan Hall. “El Matador” thwarted the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace’s submission attempts to score a first round knockout victory, handing Hall his first loss inside the Octagon and first setback in 15 years. With the win, Topuria put the rest of the division on notice and likely sets him up for a nice fight moving forward. “El Matador” is a legit prospect who shows promise to be a threat at 145 pounds.

Biggest Loser (s): Greg Hardy and Jessica Eye

I didn’t put McGregor on here for the simple fact of the way the fight ended. Plus, as I mentioned earlier, he won’t lose any ground — though he will lose time — in the 155-pound picture once he comes back if Dana White and Co. have a say in the matter (which they do). So, for now, the biggest losers of this event have to be Hardy and Jessica Eye. We are going to double dip here because their respective losses to Tuivasa and Jennifer Maia, respectively, are big blows to their careers moving forward. After Hardy got knocked out by Tuivasa in the first round, it marked the second straight time he suffered a loss via strikes, the other courtesy of Marcin Tybura. For Eye, losing to Maia marked her third straight loss, which could lead to her release, or at the very least, put her on very thin ice in her next fight inside the Octagon.

For full UFC 264 play-by-play updates and results click here. And to check out the latest and greatest “McGregor vs. Poirier 3”-related news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here.