Former UFC champion Eddie Alvarez believes that Dustin Poirier’s short sprints were the key that caused Conor McGregor to “panic” at UFC 257.

Alvarez is the right guy to ask when it comes to McGregor and Poirier, considering he’s been in the Octagon with those two on three occasions. Alvarez, who is a member of the ONE Championship roster these days, is a huge MMA fan and despite not being in the UFC any longer, he’s always offering his analysis of the fights. One of those fights was the UFC 257 main event between Poirier and McGregor, which Poirier won by second-round knockout. Speaking to MMAjunkie.com, Alvarez gave his thoughts on the matchup and explained what Poirier did in the fight to pick up the upset knockout win.

“Dustin Poirier putting on them sprints that he puts on, I thought that would be the best way that he could get it done. I agreed that if he gave Conor the space that Conor can relax and create stuff that he’d have a bad night. But Dustin just fought a beautiful game plan by kicking that leg and then putting a short sprint on him and being able to cause him to panic and put him away,” Alvarez said.

As Alvarez alluded to with his comments, McGregor really struggled to keep Poirier in his punching distance that would allow him to stay back, attack Poirier with long strikes, and knock Poirier out just as he did back at UFC 178. While McGregor was able to do some of that in the first round, the second round was completely different as Poirier made the right adjustments. This time around, Poirier used his sprints to disrupt McGregor’s timing, causing him to panic, and which ultimately ended in the upset TKO.

Do you agree with Eddie Alvarez about Dustin Poirier’s gameplan against Conor McGregor?