After Dustin Poirier beat Max Holloway to win the interim lightweight belt at UFC 236 all signs points to him fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov next. And, now, even Nurmagomedov’s manager in Ali Abdelaziz says that fight is close to being finalized with it expecting to happen in Abu Dhabi at UFC 242.
With Poirier hoping to give Nurmagomedov his first professional loss, he broke down his upcoming fight with Brendan Schaub.
“There’s not like one thing that’s glaring at me that we need to work on it’s just my overall game and being a better fighter,” Dustin Poirier said on a recent episode of Below the Belt’s Food Truck Diaries with Brendan Schaub (h/t BJPENN). “We have to make holes by just performing out there. I will and can [get back up after being taken down]. I create space with my Jiu-Jitsu, I don’t think people know how long I’ve been doing Jiu-Jitsu. As long as I’ve been fighting – before I ever fought. I’ve been doing Jiu-Jitsu 14 or 15 years, I’m a black belt. I’m gonna create space with submissions and put him in danger and make him have to respect me and then I’ll get up.
“It’s gonna be a scrap but I’m gonna make him make mistakes and we’ll see what happens. If he slows down, it’s gonna go downhill for him. I think with my overall game, I can cause threats and problems for him early on as well. I don’t need him to gas out to win this fight.
“Against all odds, I’ll get it done, man. It’s the story of my life.”
