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)
Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier are set to meet in their trilogy fight in July 2021
Michael Chandler is fighting for the Lightweight title as he faces Charles Oliveira at UFC 262.
This would be Chandler’s second fight in the promotion after he knocked out Dan Hooker in the first round on his UFC debut.
Chandler is a former Bellator Lightweight champion and has his work cut out for him. Oliveira has been excellent too and it will be interesting to see how the clash goes.
There is another big UFC Lightweight clash later in July too that is making the news. Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier meet for a third time and this would take place just months after their second meeting at UFC 257.
It was Poirier who got the win then with an excellent performance. Poirier made it 1-1 in their rivalry and some believed he should get a title shot.
However, Poirier backed down from that and wanted another McGregor bout. Chandler was speaking to Helen Yee and believed the pressure is now on The Diamond:
“Poirier had nothing to lose in that last fight, nothing to lose.
“Now he’s got kinda something to lose. I really think Poirier has a lot to lose because now he had the opportunity to probably fight me or Charles [Oliveira] for the title and he said no.
“He wanted to fight Conor, so you pass up on a title fight to fight Conor, there is a lot of pressure that goes along with making that decision.”
Chandler was also asked to share his prediction for the trilogy and he backed McGregor to make some changes to his style.
The Irishman was battered with some insane calf kicks. However, Chandler believed that McGregor would make certain adjustments to his fight game and the Irishman has one of the highest fight IQs in the game.
“We will see how it plays out but I think Conor makes some adjustments and at least looks a lot better in the next fight, not going to say he gets the win, but he’s in a better position now than he was back in January when they fought the first time.”
McGregor vs Poirier 3 is going to be something special. The winner of this clash could end up getting a title shot and it will be interesting to see if Chandler is holding the vacant belt after UFC 262.
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