Conor McGregor reacts to rival Dustin Poirier’s drunken arrest – ‘Take accountability, my man’

What a strange timeline.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) two-division champion Conor McGregor is now sober, while his longtime rival Dustin Poirierwas arrested a little more than two weeks ago following an airport incident in Georgia.

Indeed, Poirier was arrested on Father’s Day after an incident that initially resulted in a misdemeanor public drunkenness charge. Now, McGregor has some advice for the man he shared the Octagon with three times.

“Karma is a mirror,” McGregor said on Smash Cast. “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. Oh, there’s people, ‘It was funny, I like him more.’ So you start laughing about it. ‘Ah, maybe it wasn’t so bad. Maybe I’ll keep going.’ Then the next one’s worse, and then you slip deeper and deeper. So, I would say, take this with absolute seriousness.”

McGregor also revealed that he had recently been asked about Poirier before the arrest video surfaced, specifically about Poirier’s retirement and post-fighting life.

“Funny enough, I spoke with Megan Olivi, they asked me — not on this, this hadn’t happened yet — but asking me about Dustin,” McGregor said. “And for him to retire and go on steroids for no reason, I found that stupid. Also, his body didn’t look any different, which, alarm bells went off. Take it with absolute seriousness, because you don’t want to slip further and further.”

Of course, McGregor knows all about things slipping further and further (details here).

The Irish superstar has had his own long history of legal issues, ugly incidents and a toxic relationship with alcohol. However, ahead of his UFC 329 return, McGregor has been open about his sobriety, his renewed faith and trying to move forward in a healthier direction.

That is why, even with all the bad blood between them, McGregor kept his message to Poirier fairly direct.

“He has to take accountability,” McGregor said. “I seen something, he came out, his father – he blamed his father. You have to take accountability, my man. That’s it. I’m not gonna 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.”

Poirier has since apologized for the incident and opened up in more detail, revealing that he has been dealing with mental health struggles since retiring from the sport.

McGregor, meanwhile, returns to action for the first time in five years this weekend against Max Holloway at UFC 329.

To checkout the latest and greatest UFC 329: “McGregor vs. Holloway 2” news and notes be sure to hit up our comprehensive event archive right Conor McGregor reacts to rival Dustin.