For a few tense seconds, Dustin Poirier had the undisputed UFC lightweight title in his sights.
Poirier’s guillotine choke had champ Khabib Nurmagomedov in trouble in the second round of their UFC 242 title unifier in September 2019. What happened in the middle of that sequence perhaps left the former interim champ with a lifetime of what-ifs.
“I just know how close it was,” Poirier told Joe Rogan on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “A game of inches, and I know how close it was. What haunts me more than [not pulling] full guard is me not switching to a D’Arce or anaconda [choke] when he rolled to his side.