“If it does go to (rounds) three, four, and five… I can’t see it going that far, but I think it will be a lot worse for Poirier if I’m being honest”.
The general consensus heading into UFC 257 is that Dustin Poirier’s best chance against Conor McGregor is to drag the Irishman into the later rounds and tire him out.
McGregor has shown to fade in the later rounds while Poirier seems to build up momentum and come alive in rounds three, four, and five.
SBG Ireland coach Owen Roddy, however, believes it would be a mistake for Poirier to underestimate ‘The Notorious’s’ cardio in the championship rounds.
Roddy actually believes it would be ‘a lot worse for Poirier’ if the Louisianian survives the early rounds and tries to overwhelm McGregor in the latter half of the fight, but that’s not what he sees playing out on fight night.
“I doubt it’s going to go that far, but you’ll see,” Roddy told Submission Radio (via Middle Easy). “If it does go to (rounds) three, four, and five… I can’t see it going that far, but I think it will be a lot worse for Poirier if I’m being honest, because you don’t want Conor hitting you for 25 minutes, and he can set a pace, Conor.
“He is in phenomenal shape. He is in the best shape I’ve ever seen him in my life, physically and mentally. So I think it would be dangerous. I think Poirier would be taking a lot of dangerous blows if he managed to stay in there, but I still don’t see him staying in there.”
McGregor finished Poirier via first-round TKO in their first matchup at UFC 178 but is hoping for a war in the rematch. The UFC 257 PPV takes place Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.