POIRIER KNOCKS OUT MCGREGOR

Dustin Poirier finally got his revenge.

After losing to Conor Mcgregor in 2014, Poirier ended Mcgregor’s return to the octagon with decision by TKO in the second round of their lightweight fight at UFC 257 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday.

Poirier opened the round with low calf kicks, and caught Mcgregor’s attention. Poirier tried to kick again and Mcgregor caught the left leg twice in separate instances and forced Poirier to dance on one foot and reconsider his stance.

The southpaw regrouped and Poirier connected with a calf kick, followed with a crisp left hand that crushed the face of Mcgregor. The Irishman felt the powerful shot and was instantly stunned. Poirier noticed and immediately pounced, landing one left. Then another. Followed by a technical and thudding combination.

A Poirier right hook dropped a dazed Mcgregor and Poirier connected with two more unanswered shots before referee Herb Dean stopped the action at the 2:32 mark to win by TKO.

It was Mcgregor’s first fight in a little over a year.

College football

Santa Ana Mater Dei defensive back Domani Jackson, one of the top defensive back prospects in the nation and the top recruit in California in the class of 2022, committed to USC, giving the Trojans another momentous victory in a month full of them on the recruiting trail.

Local colleges

The UC San Diego women’s basketball team (2-3, 2-3 Big West) fell to UC Davis (3-0, 2-0), 58-46, at the Pavilion in Davis.

Soccer

Last season’s FA Cup winner Arsenal was eliminated from the competition in the fourth round thanks to Gabriel’s own-goal in a 1-0 loss to Southampton, while Manchester City survived a scare to beat fourth-tier Cheltenham 3-1.

Premier League clubs Brighton, West Ham and Sheffield United all won their fourth-round games against lower-league teams.

• Eden Hazard scored and set up Karim Benzema for his first of two goals as Real Madrid eased to a 4-1 victory at Alaves in the Spanish league, ending a winless run in a match that coach Zinedine Zidane missed after he contracted the coronavirus.

• Bayern Munich’s closest challengers, Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen, both lost in the Bundesliga to give the eight-time defending champions a chance to move seven points clear at the top.

Tennis

The International Tennis Federation denied a bid by 29th-ranked Dayana Yastremska to lift a suspension for failing an out-of-competition doping test. The ruling can be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport by the 20-year-old Ukrainian.

Former top-25 player Filippo Volandri was named Italy’s Davis Cup captain, ending Corrado Barazzutti’s 20-year run in charge.

Winter sports

Kaillie Humphries got her second win in as many attempts in a monobob sled this season, leading a goldsilver finish for USA Bobsled and Skeleton at Koenigssee, Germany.

Humphries had the fastest time in both heats and finished in 1 minute, 46.75 seconds. She was 0.62 seconds ahead of Elana Meyers Taylor of the U.S., who took second for her first monobob medal.

• Olympic champion

Sofia Goggia is dominating the World Cup downhill season like no woman since ski great Lindsey Vonn. Goggia won her fourth straight downhill on Saturday at Crans-montana, Switzerland, to tie a World Cup streak last achieved by Vonn in 2018.

The Italian star finished 0.27 seconds faster than

Lara Gut-behrami as both thrived on icy snow slicker than in Friday’s race at Crans-montana also won by Goggia.

• Germany’s Felix Loch is the World Cup men’s overall champion for the seventh time, clinching the title in Ogls, Austria, with his ninth win in 10 races this season. He leads German teammate

Johannes Ludwig by 320 points with two races remaining.