Conor McGregor was asked what he would tell Dustin Poirier after Poirier’s recent airport arrest, and the answer landed somewhere between warning and criticism.
McGregor spoke during a Smash Cast interview ahead of his UFC 329 return. The question came after Poirier had already been in the news for a Father’s Day airport incident, a story MiddleEasy previously covered when Poirier said he was working on himself after the public drunk arrest report and again when airport arrest footage showed the former interim champion threatening staff.
McGregor Says Poirier Must Treat It Seriously
McGregor first framed the situation as a warning about how quickly one public mistake can become something worse if the person involved laughs it off or lets others make light of it.
“You know, the old karma is a mirror,” McGregor said. “It’s not good. It’s not good to see. If I was to say something to him, I would say, ‘Take this with absolute seriousness. Do not engage in people.'”
He then described the danger of treating the first incident like a joke.
“There’s people, it was funny, it’s just I like them more,” McGregor said. “And you, so you start laughing about, ah, maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe I’ll keep going, and then the next one’s worse, and then you slip deeper and deeper. So I would say take this with the absolute seriousness.”
That was the more measured part of the answer. McGregor then moved into Poirier’s explanation and pushed back on the idea that the situation should be tied to Poirier’s father.
McGregor Pushes Accountability Line
Poirier has publicly taken responsibility for the arrest fallout, but he also discussed the emotional weight of his father’s alcohol issues while explaining what led to the day. McGregor said Poirier still had to own it.
“He obviously has,” McGregor said. “He has to take accountability. I seen something he came out and he was like his father. He blamed his father. You have to take accountability, my man. That’s it. I’m not going to go deeper. I don’t want to go into it. It’s not my business, you know, and for the sake of his family and his children, his new child born, I hope he comes right.”
McGregor also said he had been asked about Poirier before the arrest video became part of the discussion. His answer there turned into a separate jab about what he claimed was Poirier’s post-retirement steroid use.
“For him to retire and then go on steroids for no reason, I found that stupid,” McGregor said. “And then also even his body didn’t look any different, which has me alarm bells went off in my thought. Take it with absolute seriousness because you don’t want to slip further and further.”
Poirier has not said he used steroids in retirement. The former interim lightweight champion has spoken about needing help and trying to steady his life after fighting, while several fighters have weighed in on the arrest fallout. Drew Dober used Poirier’s arrest to explain why UFC retirement scares him, and Jon Jones previously urged Poirier to keep moving forward.
McGregor’s message is more complicated because of their history. Poirier beat him twice in 2021, including the trilogy bout that ended with McGregor’s broken leg. Now McGregor is back in the UFC 329 spotlight, and Poirier is the one dealing with the consequences of a viral airport incident.
The line McGregor wanted attached to it was simple: take it seriously, stop the slide early, and take accountability before the next problem becomes worse.
