Takedown breakdown: How Dustin Poirier grounded Conor McGregor at UFC 257

Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC McGregor was certainly caught off-guard.In any Conor McGregor fight, the former two-weight champion is at his most dangerous when he’s fresh in the early stages of the bout. After being knocked out in the first round in their previous meeting, Dustin Poirier made a special effort to navigate those treacherous waters at UFC 257.

Wrestling with McGregor is easier said than done. Although the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov made it look fairly straightforward, he had a unique ability to work through shots from space, and was eventually able to pressure McGregor and hit different finishes on the cage. The highly explosive and specialized Chad Mendes was really the…