Dustin Poirier realizes he has a tough task this Saturday night (Feb. 11), but he is confident that things will go his way.
Poirier will step inside the Octagon for the 17th time. His opponent will be Jim Miller, who is a 37-fight mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran. “The Diamond” is ready to get back on the horse after getting knocked out by Michael Johnson.
Before running into Johnson, Poirier was on a four-fight winning streak. It began with a knockout win over Carlos Diego Ferreira. He went on to finish Yancy Medeiros before defeating Joseph Duffy by unanimous decision. He then slept Bobby Green in the first round.
During UFC 208’s media day, Poirier discussed his last outing (via MMAJunkie.com). “The Diamond” admitted that there’s work to be done with his defense:
“I need to be more defensively responsible when I’m fighting, I need to respect everybody’s punching power, and not get so emotional. It cost me – every fight that I’ve ever really wanted to hurt the guy and felt that anger, I’ve made huge mistakes. (I need to) just take a step back and use my skill. I’ve been doing this a long time.”
Poirier will have to put the loss behind him if he expects to be 100 percent focused on Miller. That’s exactly what he intends on doing. Despite suffering his first loss at 155 pounds, Poirier has not lost hope in his ultimate goal.
“Saturday, I’ll be 5-1 in the lightweight division. I’m going to fight two or three times this year. Realistically (late) into the year, (or) beginning of next year, I’ll be trying to grab that belt.”
Poirier was knocked out by the current lightweight kingpin Conor McGregor back in Sept. 2014. That bout was held in the featherweight division. If “The Diamond” can get back on track, it isn’t inconceivable to see him fight for gold one day.
