UFC lightweight champion Khahib Nurmagomedov has a straightfoward gameplan for a fight against Dustin Poirier.
UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier impressed a great majority of fight fans during his performance at UFC 236 against featherweight champion Max Holloway. Among those tuned in was shelved 155-pound champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Khabib says he was impressed enough with Poirier’s showing that night, and agrees that “The Diamond” is indeed the next in line for a shot at his title.
“I think it was a very good performance from Dustin Poirier,” Khabib told Megan Olivi backstage at UFC St. Petersburg on Saturday. “Honestly, before the fight, I though Holloway was going to beat him. This was my prediction when I talked with friends, with my father, with my team. But he impressed me. Dustin impressed me.
“I think he has very good boxing, much better than before. In every fight, he became stronger, better in boxing, on his feet, and I think he deserves a title shot.
“He’s the interim UFC lightweight champion, I’m the real lightweight champion, we have to fight,” he continued. “Now we’re working on this.”
As for how he will approach the fight, “The Eagle” plans to do so in trademark fashion.
“I think I have to maul him, like I do with everybody,” Khabib said of Poirier. “This is what I have to do. I respect him as a fighter, as a human, but when we go to the cage, I have to maul this guy. This is what I want.
“Right now I’m focusing on September, five months before the fight, and I think it’s going to be a very good fight with him.”
Nothing has been set in stone in terms of a fight between the two, but there already seems to be an agreement in place, at least according to one of Poirier’s latest tweets. Khabib also recently revealed that the UFC is setting up his September fight in Abu Dhabi.