Dustin Poirier reacts after his knockout victory over Conor McGregor of Ireland in a lightweight fight during the UFC 257 event inside Etihad Arena on UFC Fight Island on January 23, 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images)
Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor are likely to have a trilogy fight later this year
Dana White came out in the press conference last week and admitted that Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 3 is being targeted for July.
The two have fought twice before. McGregor won the 2014 bout at UFC 178 while Poirier, of course, came out as the victor at UFC 257.
‘The Diamond’ would unarguably have been in pole position to get a shot at the lightweight title, especially with Khabib Nurmagomedov officially announcing his retirement from MMA.
But he is seemingly putting that on the line for another payday with McGregor; one which he would back himself to win after his dominant showing at UFC 257.
And analysing their last fight on Submission Radio earlier this week was Jon Anik. He stated how the Irishman got ‘lazy’ in his defence against ‘The Diamond’.
One of the major reasons why McGregor succumbed to a round 2 TKO was Poirier’s calf kicks, which Anik thinks McGregor was defenceless against.
“The short answer on the calf kicks, my man, is, can’t take one. You really can’t take one. And I think Conor McGregor, defensively, got a little bit lazy towards the end of round 1 and certainly early round 2. And all of a sudden there’s one that completely compromises the limb and you’re not the same fighter.”
Anik is certainly right there as the calf kicks really wore out ‘The Notorious One’, which is also something that DC analysed when the fight was done and dusted.
He would surely need to have a better defence in the 3rd fight, and one way to check the kicks is changing his stance; at least that’s what MMA legend, Bas Rutten, thinks.
But we all know that all it takes for a fight to be over is one punch from McGregor and that can come at any moment.
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