“It’s difficult to forget, but you wanna remember it and use it to motivate you in the rematch”.
Daniel Cormier knows Dustin Poirier has a tough task ahead of him against Conor McGregor at UFC 257, but ‘The Diamond’ must put his previous fight with ‘The Notorious’ behind him if he wants to stand a chance at winning the rematch on Jan. 23.
Poirier suffered a first-round knockout defeat to McGregor in 2014 when both men used to compete at featherweight and, as difficult as that loss must have been for Poirier, ‘DC’ advised the former interim lightweight champ not to dwell on it too much ahead of UFC 257.
In fact, Poirier should convince himself that losing to McGregor is no big deal and that ‘he just got caught’ with a good shot.
“I think when you lose a fight and you go into another fight [with the same person]… I know all about it, I fought ‘Rumble’ [Anthony Johnson] twice, I fought Jon Jones twice, I fought Stipe [Miocic] three times. I fought seven of my 25 fights against three dudes,” Cormier said in a recent interview with SCMP (h/t BJPenn.com). “So I think any fighter can convince himself he just got caught, and that’s what Dustin is gonna have to rely on in order to give himself a chance.
“It’s difficult to forget, but you wanna remember it and use it to motivate you in the rematch.”
Poirier heads into the rematch riding a unanimous decision win over Dan Hooker at UFC Vegas 4 which earned him a $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus while McGregor will look to top his near flawless 40-second TKO victory against Donald Cerrone at UFC 246.
UFC 257, which features Poirier vs. McGregor as the main event, will take place later this month, Jan. 23 at UFC Fight Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.