5 times UFC fighters lost after getting personal with their opponents

#2 Bethe Correia vs Ronda Rousey at UFC 190

Ronda Rousey makes this list again but on a different side this time. Bethe 'Pit bull' Correia was on a three-fight win streak in the UFC and was undefeated in her professional MMA career. She was scheduled to face undefeated bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, at UFC 190.

While speaking about her fight with Rousey to a Brazilian sports outlet Combate, Correia made some nasty comments on Rousey. Although the comments could be deemed to be poorly worded, she had said:

"I want to knock her out, show to everyone that she is a lie. She wants to stand up with me, let's see. I want to humiliate her and show the world she has no MMA. She is focused on movies, books. I am much stronger; I come from a developing country, where people are struggling to survive, not to starve. It is very different from her life of reality. Under pressure, she is proving weak."

"When her mom put pressure on her, she ran away from home. When she lost, it was because of drugs. That's not a superhero. She is not mentally healthy; she needs to take care of herself. She is winning; so everybody is around her cheering her up. But when she realizes she is not everything that she believes she is, I don't know what might happen. I hope she does not kill herself later on."

The comment about suicide rubbed Rousey in a very bad way, as her father had committed suicide when she was eight years old. Correia received a lot of backlash from fight fans as well as the UFC bantamweight champion herself.

Although Correia apologized for her comments before the fight, saying that she did not know about the suicide of Rousey's father, 'Rowdy' punished her in their fight with a first-round knockout win.

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#1 Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier at UFC 264

The feud between Conor 'The Notorious' McGregor and Dustin 'The Diamond' Poirier began with their first meeting in a featherweight fight at UFC 178.

After getting into his American opponent's head with his trash-talk, the Irishman won the bout in the first round via TKO. Seven years later, they faced each other in a lightweight bout at UFC 257, where a much bigger Poirier avenged his loss via a second-round TKO.

After the win, 'Diamond' made a gesture to indicate that the score was tied at 1-1, thus implying that a third fight must happen, hence getting the ball rolling for UFC 264.

Following the loss to Poirier, fans claimed that McGregor had become complacent from all the money he has earned throughout his career. His friendly and cordial public behavior, minus any trash-talk after his humbling loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 did not help to make the case against what his fans were claiming. Everybody wanted the hungry old trash-talking McGregor back.

The animosity in an otherwise friendly relationship with Poirier after their second fight was brought back when Poirier called McGregor out for not living up to his promise of donating to his charity foundation.

Following the call-out, McGregor donated the promised amount to a different charity organization from Poirier's hometown instead of donating to Poirier's charity. Four days before the fight at UFC 264, McGregor posted a doctored screenshot on Twitter suggesting that Poirier's wife Jolie Poirier was sending messages to him on Instagram.

pic.twitter.com/kdI3GStMeL

— Conor McGregor (@TheNotoriousMMA) July 6, 2021

It was then speculated that the old McGregor was back. He did bring back his trash-talking in the pre-fight press conference and the weigh-ins, but there was something odd about it.

McGregor seemed to be forcing himself into a frame of mind that he did not truly want to be in. After observing that his trash-talk was not good enough to get into Poirier's head this time, McGregor started making death threats to Poirier.

The rest, as we know it, is history. McGregor suffered a gruesome leg injury that came from his rigorous sparring during training.

The Irishman already had an ankle injury resulting from his heavy sparring drills during training. His shin had suffered multiple stress fractures from the same, and it crumbled eventually in the fight with Poirier.

UFC 264: Dustin Poirier Vs Conor McGregor 3 Say After BREAKING His LEG 2021 pic.twitter.com/LNVtOkJ6uw

— djjamaice (@djjamaice) July 11, 2021

Hence it could be said that McGregor had lost the fight before stepping into the octagon, as he was forcing his old self to come out by training too hard for the fight.