Dustin Poirier nearly had his fourth fight with Conor McGregor.

Poirier and McGregor have a well-storied history, most recently fighting at UFC 264 where McGregor shattered his leg in their trilogy fight. After that bout, McGregor lobbed vicious insults and Poirier and his family, turning their rivalry into a more bitter type of feud. And recently that feud nearly spilled over into the public.

“No. Dude, that was crazy,” Poirier told Ariel Helwani about nearly running into McGregor at a convention in Las Vegas. “I had just finished my signing for Celsius and I’m partnered with a seltzer water… so I was walking over to their booth to meet some people and Conor was behind me apparently. And my agent was walking behind me and he grabs me — Conor might have saw the back of my head, I don’t know. I didn’t see him.

“[My agent] grabs my shoulders and says, ‘Go this way, to the right, to the right.’ So we start walking to the right, I’m like, ‘The booth is right there!’ We’re walking to the right and once we get clear of everybody he’s like, ‘Dude, we almost had a big problem.’ That’s what that was.”

McGregor did see Poirier as a video of their near run-in made the rounds on social media, but did not try to stir up anything with the former interim lightweight champion. But Poirier believes that if they’d seen each other, instead of just passed by, things might have gotten dramatic.

“I don’t know, bro. We have such a long history,” Poirier said. “He said some foul things. You ever watch Family Guy? You know when Peter and the Chicken run into each other? They freaking go on this crazy fight, they’re falling down hills, they’re fighting for an hour — that’s what would have happened.

“Yeah, for sure [we would have fought]. Just everything we have over the past however many years since our first fight. So sure we would have.”

“It’s not cordial anymore,” Poirier continued. “The both of us, I believe both of us. Once my guy walked us away and told me what happened and why we had to make that right, I was like, ‘If we’d have made eye contact, if our eyes would have met, it would have been bad, probably.”

Of course there is a way for the two men to settle their differences: a fought fight in the octagon. McGregor was supposed to face Michael Chandler at UFC 303 until an injury forced him off the card. Now the former champ-champ has his eyes set on a 2025 return, and recently suggested Poirier as a possible opponent. “The Diamond” also recently said he intends to fight at least one time next year before hanging up the gloves for good, but doesn’t seem sold on the idea that McGregor is actually coming back.

“I don’t know if he’s ever going to fight again,” Poirier said. “… We’ll see. I don’t know. I was kind of thinking for sure he was at the beginning of his return against Chandler, then it kept getting drug on, and I don’t know.”

DWCS. Four more contracts were awarded on the final episode of Contender Series.

MMA Retirement. Donald Cerrone plans to end his retirement, fight two more times.

Dislike. Dana White is not a fan of “Cowboy” coming back.

Purpose. Francis Ngannou reveals why he’s going forward with PFL fight despite tragic loss of his son this year.

Lawsuits. Jake Paul sued Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing right back.

DUI. Mike Perry was arrested for DUI in his home state of Florida.

Rankings. Dana White sounds off on the UFC rankings again following UFC 307.

Dana White scrum.

Francis Ngannou and Renan Ferreira on PFL Fight Week.

Contender Series announcements.

Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kamaru Usman.

Sounds like we might have a fight.

Classy guy.

I completely forgot Corey Anderson was champion.

Shade.

Contender Series is officially in the books for 2024. Over 40 new UFC signees have joined the promotion in the past couple of months and quite a few of them look to be very promising. Look for my prospect breakdown from this season later this week.

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @AlexanderKlee or @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let us know about it. Also, follow MMAFighting on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, and like us on Facebook.

TOM BRADY 3 STARS OF THE WEEK

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German football expert Raphael Honigstein joins BBC Sport to discuss the attributes of new England head coach Thomas Tuchel.

Honigstein was speaking on The Football News Show on Tuesday, before Tuchel’s appointment was confirmed by the Football Association on Wednesday.

Watch The Football News Show on iPlayer

Former England captain Alan Shearer says the Three Lions “need a manager who can deliver a trophy” after German Thomas Tuchel agreed to become the next boss.

Tuchel, 51, is set to become the third non-British permanent manager of the England men’s team, with a media conference expected on Wednesday at Wembley.

Tuchel, who won the Champions League with Chelsea in 2021, will be tasked with leading England to the 2026 World Cup, where they will hope to end a 60-year wait for a major trophy.

“We need a trophy – it’s as simple as that. We need a manager who can deliver that,” Shearer said on The Rest Is Football, external podcast.

“There’s no doubt [Tuchel] has an incredible CV, but this is going to be a very different test for him. It’s a bold move from the FA, there’s no doubt about it.

“You have to win the tournament, that’s what he’s been hired for. They [the FA] have seen the bunch of players are the best England have had for a long, long time.”

England have been without a permanent manager since Gareth Southgate resigned after eight years in charge following the Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain, with Lee Carsley appointed on an interim basis.

Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello are the only previous non-British permanent England men’s managers, but unlike his predecessors Tuchel is familiar with English football – having managed Chelsea between January 2021 and September 2022.

“Tuchel will have looked at this squad and thought there is so much talent in there, this is an unbelievable opportunity of winning the greatest trophy of all,” former England striker Gary Lineker said.

“I would have given the job to Carsley. I have seen enough to suggest the players really trust him, that he’s imaginative enough to produce something that is a joy to watch – entertaining front-footed football.”

Former England defender Micah Richards said: “The point is we don’t have an English candidate strong enough to take that job, that’s one of the most interesting things.

“I was of the opinion that we don’t need an English manager, just go out and get the best person for the job. I think Tuchel is an outstanding manager, a proven winner.”

Aaron Judge hit a two-run drive into Monument Park for his first home run of this postseason, and the New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Guardians 6-3 on Tuesday night to take a 2-0 AL Championship Series lead.

Judge, who entered with just one RBI in the playoffs, hit a sacrifice fly in a two-run second that put the Yankees ahead 3-0. With New York leading 4-2 in the seventh, the likely AL MVP drove a fastball at the letters from Hunter Gaddis 414 feet to center for his 14th career postseason home run.

Yankees’ Aaron Judge hits his first homer of the postseason, solidifying the win over the Guardians

In a matchup of aces who had off nights, Cleveland’s Tanner Bibee got just four outs in the shortest start of his professional career and an erratic Gerrit Cole was chased after four walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Winner Clay Holmes, Tim Hill and Tommy Kahnle combined for 3 2/3 scoreless innings. José Ramírez hit a ninth-inning home run off Luke Weaver, just the second earned run New York’s bullpen has allowed over 23 1/3 innings in six postseason games.

After a day off, Game 3 is Thursday in Cleveland. The Yankees lead the ALCS 2-0 for the first time since 2009 against the Los Angeles Angels.

New York’s Gleyber Torres reached base leading off for the fifth time in the playoffs and had three hits. Anthony Rizzo had two hits and is 3-for-7 in two games since returning from a pair of fractured fingers that caused him to miss the Division Series.

Rookie shortstop Brayan Rocchio and right fielder Will Brennan committed run-scoring errors for the Guardians.

Rocchio dropped Judge’s first-inning popup, allowing Torres to score. After Cleveland closed to 3-2, Brennan bobbled the ball when he tried for a barehand pickup of Rizzo’s sixth-inning double that caromed off the low wall down the right-field line. Anthony Volpe, who had been on first, sprinted home.

Steven Kwan extended his Cleveland-record postseason hitting streak to 12 games.

Alex Verdugo had an opposite-field RBI double in the two-run second that glanced off a shoulder of left field umpire Vic Carapazza and went down the line.

Cleveland closed to 3-2 in the fifth when Josh Naylor hit a sacrifice fly and, after Holmes relieved with the bases loaded, Will Brennan grounded into a run-scoring forceout.

Cleveland went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners.

Cole escaped two-on, one-out trouble in the third and then a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth when pinch-hitter David Fry fouled out and Rocchio took a knuckle curve at the top of the strike zone for a called third strike in a nine-pitch at-bat.

Holmes struck out Austin Hedges on a low sinker to leave the bases loaded in the fifth.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Guardians: RHP Alex Cobb was removed from the roster with a lower back strain sustained in the opener and replaced by RHP Ben Lively.

UP NEXT

Yankees RHP Clarke Schmidt starts Thursday at Cleveland. He allowed two runs and four hits over 4 2/3 innings in Division Series Game 3, wasting a 2-0 lead before New York won 3-2. He faced the Guardians once this year, pitching five scoreless innings before allowing a pair of runs — one unearned — in the sixth inning of a 3-2 victory.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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