In three months, Dustin Poirier will find himself in the fight of his life when he stands across from 27-0 lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. In Nurmagomedov’s 11 UFC fights, he has only loss one round. Once the cage closes, as Nurmagomedov would put it, there is perhaps no one in the entire UFC who has been more dominant overall than Khabib. So when asked at the UFC 242 press conference about holes in Khabib’s game or weaknesses that Poirier can exploit, Poirier’s response indicated that it does not matter how many holes are already present when you are planning to make them yourself (Transcript via MMA Junkie):
“A lot of people have been asking me questions like where do I see weaknesses in Khabib’s game or where do I think he makes mistakes,” Poirier began at the UFC 242 press conference. I’ve been sitting back and talking to my coaches and thinking about this, and I don’t really need him to be weak for me to be strong.
“I don’t need huge glaring holes. I’m going to create them with my pressure, my fight IQ, my experience, and the amount of rounds and years that I’ve been doing this.”
Dustin Poirier’s UFC career dates all the way back to 2011, and Poirier is currently enjoying his prime years. And while not many will argue that Khabib Nurmagomedov is Poirier’s most difficult matchup to date, Poirier’s confidence in what brought him to the dance remains steadfast, and he is also confident that the UFC 242 main event will showcase how a fight at the championship level is supposed to look:
“It’s going to be a very high-level fight,” Poirier said. “We’ve got two guys on the pound-for-pound list. One of them’s undefeated, both of them are champions. Two champions are going in, one champion is coming out.”
Do you see Dustin Poirier either exploiting or creating holes in Khabib Nurmagomedov’s game?
