We are just about a week away from UFC 257. The highly anticipated PPV is being headlined by the rematch between Conor McGregor (22-4) and Dustin Poirier (26-6, 1 NC). The first fight took place at UFC 178 back in 2014.
That night, McGregor knocked out Poirier in the first few minutes of their fight. It was a massive statement on McGregor’s meteoric rise to the top of the combat sports world. Both men are in much different places six years later.
McGregor is fighting for the first time since UFC 246 last January. That night, McGregor stopped Donald Cerrone in 40 seconds. The former two-division UFC champion is promising another finish in under a minute at UFC 257.
However, Dustin Poirier has different plans. The Diamond is not wanting this fight to end with a clean knockout one way or the other. Instead, Poirier is wanting both of them to be badly hurt so they have to dig down deep.
Poirier told Theo Von recently, “What I want is for both of us to be dripping blood and hurting early in the fight. I want both of us to be bleeding and really have to dig down deep to see who’s the better fighter.”
Will UFC 257 be a war?
Words cannot express how excited I am for this rematch. Both of these men are so much better than they were six years ago when they fought the first time. It’ll be very interesting to see if Poirier’s improvements can push him past McGregor.
Based on what Poirier’s saying, you can tell he’s taking a slight jab at McGregor. Poirier has been in real trouble in fights and has had to dig down deep to win. That’s why he later said he beats McGregor ten times out of ten if the fight gets tough.
However, it is worth noting that the UFC’s first champ-champ hasn’t always had it easy. McGregor was hurt by both Khabib Nurmagomedov and Nate Diaz in their fights. McGregor did better than anyone in terms of fighting Khabib going off recent history which includes Poirier.
Conor McGregor’s biggest test came at UFC 202 when he fought Diaz for the second time. McGregor is a very fast starter and dropped Diaz a number of times early. However, Diaz didn’t go away and stormed back into the fight.
When it appeared that McGregor was on his way to losing again, he dug down deep and won the crucial fourth round. That round secured the decision for Conor McGregor in a fight he desperately needed to win.
We’ve seen Poirier come back from adversity more times than McGregor, but we know McGregor is capable. If this fight is truly a war, I think both are capable of digging down deep to find a win. I can’t wait to find out what happens next Saturday night.