This defeat will hurt for rest of my life: Dustin

Abu Dhabi - Dustin had his moment in the third round when he got Khabib in a spot by jumping the guard for guillotine choke attempt but failed in fully executing the move.

Dustin Poirier was bruised, battered and broken after the UFC 242 defeat to lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in Abu Dhabi.
During the post-match press conference, the American was in tears while reflecting on his missed opportunity before tapping out in the third round at the Arena. The 30-year-old firmly believed that he would leave Abu Dhabi shores as the new world champion. Dustin had his moment in the third round when he got Khabib in a spot by jumping the guard for guillotine choke attempt but failed in fully executing the move.
Yes, guillotine was really deep but for rest of my life I am going to look back and wonder why I didn't jump full guard with it so that he couldn't roll out and relieve the pressure."
Dustin's pre-match plan was to dominate in third, fourth and fifth rounds but it didn't go that way.
"I knew the first two will be tough. He was winning rounds, taking me down and dominating. But I felt he was getting a bit weaker. I thought I will start to pull away and start pacing him later on but his balance and weight distribution against the fence was good."
Dustin said questions about his inability to finish the match when opportunity existed will haunt him forever. "I have to live the rest of my life asking myself if I could have done more - If I could have escaped some of those take downs and pushed harder when I had my under hooks against the fence. Those are the questions that will haunt me. Honestly, the last 10 weeks of training camp, I thought the stars were aligning and it was my night. I thought this was destiny. I don't want to keep crying in front of you guys but this just means a lot to me," he said. "I just didn't do enough. I just let myself down. This one really hurts."
ashwani@khaleejtimes.com