Conor McGregor breaks ankle in first round to lose Dustin Poirier trilogy

Conor McGregor broke his ankle in the first round of his trilogy fight with Dustin Poirier as he lost to his rival for the second time in six months.

The Irishman made a fast start to his third meeting but was in trouble on the canvas when he failed with an attempted guillotine.

Poirier dominated from top position before allowing McGregor to stand up. He threw and missed with a punch and fell backwards when his ankle appeared to snap.

He fell to the ground and was unable to continue with the fight awarded to Poirier as a TKO.

McGregor was eventually taken from the cage on a stretcher with the irony of his pre-fight taunts that Poirier would do the same not lost on the crowd.

McGregor was bidding to avenge his January defeat by Poirier when he was stopped in the second round in Abu Dhabi.

Poirier himself had waited more than six years for his revenge mission having been knocked out by McGregor in 2014.

Both men quickly accepted the trilogy fight with the winner all but guaranteed a shot at 155lb champion Charles Oliveira who was cageside in Sin City.

Having fought in front of a sparse, Covid-restricted crowd in the desert, McGregor looked rejuvenated by the 20,000 full house at the T-Mobile Arena.

But after a fast start, he was dominated in the second half of the round before his ankle gave way. He remained on the canvas after the buzzer and the doctor ruled he was unfit to continue, earning Poirier victory by a technical KO.

McGregor fumed: "I was boxing the bleeding head off him, kicking the bleeding leg off… this is not over. If I have to take this outside for him, it's all outside, I don't give a bollocks!"

He reiterated his claim that Poirier's wife Jolie 'slid in his DMs', adding: "Your wife is in my DMs, hey baby, hit me back up I'll chat to you later on, I'll be at the after party; The Wynn night club."

In the co-main event, Gilbert Burns outpointed Stephen Thompson to remain on track for another shot at welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.

The Brazilian took Thompson down in each of the three rounds to run out the unanimous winner by three scores of 29-28.

Burns lost to Usman by third-round stoppage earlier this year but will look to earn a rematch within the next 12 months.

Fans' favourite Tai Tuivasa rocked, dropped and stopped Greg Hardy just a minute into the first round of their heavyweight showdown.

Tuivasa landed a big left hand which left Hardy out cold – and the Aussie celebrated in typical fashion by drinking beer out of a shoe.

Irene Aldana edged ever closer to a bantamweight title shot with a first-round stoppage of Yana Kunitskaya.

Aldana, who missed weight on Friday, dropped her opponent with a left hook and then finished the job on the ground.

Sean O'Malley opened the main card with a dominant performance over promotional newcomer Kris Moutinho.

But the bantamweight star landed more than 200 shots but looked set to have to settle for a points win until referee Herb Dean stepped in with less than 30 seconds remaining.

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