Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier have buried the hatchet ahead of their lightweight title fight later tonight (Sat., June 1, 2024) at UFC 302 live on ESPN+ PPV from inside Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
On Thursday, the two fighters came face-to-face for UFC 302’s pre-fight press conference and ended up exchanging some words on stage. Despite Poirier’s past matchup with Makhachev’s predecessor, Khabib Nurmagomedov, the two didn’t have bad blood coming into fight week. However, once the lightweights squared off things took a turn for the worse.
Poirier, who seems extremely confident entering what could very well be his last shot at UFC gold, told Makhachev that he’s “going to sleep, motherf—ker.” That is typical trash talk for almost all fighters, but “motherf—ker” is not something that is rarely said where Makhachev comes from. It’s an ultimate sign of disrespect and instantly created an intense situation for Makhachev and “Diamond.”
Poirier didn’t mean to disrespect the champion so he made it a point to track down Makhachev after Friday’s weigh-ins to issue an official apology. The two fighters met up backstage and buried the hatchet ahead of their highly-anticipated main event atop UFC 302’s PPV card.
Check out the footage below:
The UFC released the footage of Islam Makhachev and Dustin Poirier speaking at the weigh-ins after their heated face-off yesterday:
Dustin: “It’s still war, but I would never disrespect your family.”
Islam: “I’m happy [to] understand what they mean, because it’s not good in our… pic.twitter.com/FosTgTaYhV
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) June 1, 2024
“You know me. I would never disrespect your family like that,” said Poirier.
“He doesn’t know that Americans [say that]. From different countries,” responded Ali Abdelaziz.
“I know. He didn’t understand,” added Poirier
“We know that. All good,” said Abdelaziz.
“It’s still war. But I would never disrespect your family. That’s not in my heart,” Poirier concluded.
“I’m happy. I understand what this means. Because it’s not good in our country. Maybe in US it’s good. But our country, it’s not good,” said Makhachev.
MMAmania.com will deliver LIVE round-by-round, blow-by-blow coverage of the entire UFC 302 fight card RIGHT HERE, starting with the early ESPN+ “Prelims” matches at 6 p.m. ET, followed by the remaining undercard balance on ESPN2/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET, before the PPV main card start time at 10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ PPV.
To check out the latest and greatest UFC 302: “Makhachev vs. Poirier” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right here. For the updated and finalized UFC 302 fight card and ESPN+ lineup click here.