UFC lightweight contender Dustin Poirier thinks former bantamweight champion Petr Yan has the best boxing in the promotion today.
Poirier is just weeks away from his UFC 269 with lightweight champion Charles Oliveira and stopped by The MMA Hour to preview the matchup. He also took the time to praise Yan for his recent work in the octagon and thinks the Russian has better striking than Max Holloway, among others.
Holloway has claimed that he has the best boxing in the UFC, but Poirier disagrees and thinks Yan doesn’t get the credit he deserves. Yan most recently defeated Cory Sandhagen at UFC 267 for the interim bantamweight title.
Ahead of his anticipated rematch with Aljamain Sterling, Poirier gave Yan the title of best boxer in the UFC.
Dustin Poirier Cites Petr Yan’s Movement, Footwork As Reason For Him Being the Best Boxer
“I think Petr Yan,” Poirier told The MMA Hour when asked who the best UFC boxer is. “Just the way he moves. He doesn’t waste a lot of movements. His positioning is always crisp. He’s never out of position. He doesn’t load up while he’s throwing clean power shots. Good accuracy works the body well, goes up, goes down. It’s just a lot of things that he does really, really well.”
Yan rose to the top of the bantamweight division by earning back-to-back knockouts over the likes of Jose Aldo and Urijah Faber. He was dominating his first bout with Sterling before the fight was controversially stopped due to an illegal knee late in the fight.
But, Yan will have the opportunity to not only seek revenge against Sterling but to earn UFC gold and prove why he’s one of the most feared strikers in the UFC.
Do you agree with Dustin Poirier that Petr Yan is the best boxer in the UFC?