Outside Source
Holloway’s iconic gesture of pointing down to the ground to invite his opponent to a slugfest started with Justin Gaethje. After picking apart Gaethje for five rounds, Holloway invited him to stand and trade in the pocket in the final seconds and knocked him out in an iconic buzzer beater at UFC 300.
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When Poirier (30-10) faced Holloway in his retirement fight at UFC 318 last year, “The Diamond” knew a similar invitation was coming. However, Poirier wanted to make sure he didn’t have to trade with Holloway for over 10 seconds. Poirier’s wife, Jolie, had also warned him not to get lured by Holloway’s pointing down gesture. Confident in his own striking in the pocket, Poirier eventually decided to exchange with Holloway. However, “Blessed” started picking Poirier apart, forcing him to clinch in the final seconds.
Making a Business Decision
“I knew it was coming,” Poirier recently told the UFC. “But when he started pointing down, I was like, ‘Hold on, let me check the clock.’ I don’t want to point down with 20 seconds left. I’m thinking of Justin Gaethje laying face down. My wife told me too the night before, ‘When he points down, don’t do it. You don’t point down, you don’t do it either.’… I’m only gonna throw for 10 seconds. And then he started eating me up in the pocket, that’s where I do my best work. He was lighting me up there. So I had to clinch him.”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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