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Dustin Poirier Predicts Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor

One of the UFC’s top lightweights has weighed in on Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor. Surging No. 3-ranked Dustin Poirier will return to action against Nate Diaz at November 3’s UFC 230. He could (should) earn a shot at the winner of UFC 229’s Khabib vs. Conor main event on October 6, 2018. So “The […]

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One of the UFC’s top lightweights has weighed in on Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor.

Surging No. 3-ranked Dustin Poirier will return to action against Nate Diaz at November 3’s UFC 230. He could (should) earn a shot at the winner of UFC 229’s Khabib vs. Conor main event on October 6, 2018.

So “The Diamond” has a vested interest in the megafight, and he has his prediction ready as well. Poirier offered it to Luke Thomas on a recent edition of The MMA Hour:

“I’m kinda leaning toward Khabib. I just don’t know if he’s going to stop Conor or whatnot, but I’m thinking he’s going to get the victory.”

Nurmagomedov’s fearsome wrestling is the reason many are picking him to hand McGregor a second loss in the octagon. But ‘The Notorious” knockout striking is also the stuff of legends, and Poirier knows it. Their heated rivalry in 2014 was ended due to the Irishman’s scary striking when he floored Poirier in one round.

McGregor’s straight left hand may be the most feared weapon in all of MMA. Because of that dynamic, Poirier rightfully couldn’t count ‘The Notorious’ out:

“I mean, he has a huge chance,” Poirier said. “He’s got great timing, great judge of distance. We’ll just see if the takedown defense holds up and the cardio holds up. That’s all he has to do. The openings will be there, but he just has to stand the test of the wrestling and the conditioning, the physical part that Khabib’s going to put on early in the fight.”

The former lightweight and featherweight champion will have been out of the octagon for almost two years when UFC 229 takes place. Nurmagomedov, meanwhile, last competed at UFC 223 this April, winning the title in the main event.

Poirier doesn’t think that will be an issue. McGregor simply has to find his timing in his mind:

“It’s all a mindset, really,” Poirier said. “Once you get your rhythm down, your timing, everything else falls into place.”

McGregor and his ability to defend the endless takedown attempts expected to come his way should decide the UFC’s biggest fight of 2018. Many gamblers are betting on Nurmagomedov because of it.

The striker vs. grappler dynamic may be cliche but in this case, it holds true. Either man’s ability to impose their skillset could be the deciding factor in what may be the UFC’s biggest-ever fight.

Meanwhile, Poirier will be waiting for the winner.

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A Look At Possible UFC 230 Main Events In NYC

UFC 230 is set to go down Saturday, November 3 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The card so far has a few fights booked, including a highly attractive lightweight bout between Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz that has been labeled as th…

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Mark Henry Recalls Confusing Alvarez-Poirier Encounter

Mark Henry was just trying to congratulate Dustin Poirier after his victory over Eddie Alvarez at UFC on FOX 30.

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Mark Henry was trying to respect his team’s opponent in defeat do after UFC on FOX 30, but as a result, it also led to a strange encounter after Alvarez-Poirier.

Both Alvarez and Poirier engaged in a heated back and forth verbal battle leading up to their fight, yet “The Diamond” wasn’t quite ready to let go of the animosity. That was the case even after knocking out Alvarez in the second round, which was a truth Henry found out the hard way:

“I walked up to Dustin to congratulate him,” Henry said. “He says, Get the blank away from me. Which I did. I’m like, you know what? It’s his moment. I want him to have his moment. He deserves it.”

However, Poirier later explained that he was still very much heated due to all the trash that was being spewed from both Alvarez and his teammates/coaches. As a result, Henry insists he never harbored any ill will towards “The Diamond” while even calling Poirier honorable.

“The few [interviews] that I did, I talked very, very highly about Dustin,” Henry said. “I said how he loved he was. We’ve had hundreds of guys come to our place to help with sparring and Dustin was the most loved.”

“He was great, man. I don’t even know if he went to the doctor first. He ran to find us first. Before he even went to the doctor, he found us, he apologized to our whole team. That’s just a good dude. It was the heat of the moment. I just wish he would have known the things I was saying about him beforehand.”

It seems like, in the end, both Alvarez and Poirier are moving on to greener pastures so to speak, but because of different circumstances.

Alvarez will look to re-sign with the UFC or perhaps take his talents elsewhere. In the meantime, Poirier has a date with Nate Diaz on the massive UFC 230 card on November 3, 2018, one of the most anticipated fights of the year due to Diaz’ long-awaited return.

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Michelle Waterson Returns To Action At UFC 229

Michelle Waterson is set to return at the year’s biggest UFC.

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MMA fans will be excited to learn that Michelle Waterson returns at UFC 229.

Fan favorite “Karate Hottie” will face fellow top strawweight Felice Herrig on the growing October 6 card from Las Vegas. UFC 229 has been tabbed as the most anticipated UFC event of the year thanks to its Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Conor McGregor main event.

No. 7-ranked Waterson recently got back into the win column by defeating Courtney Casey on UFC on FOX 29 this April. No. 8 Herrig most recently saw a four-fight win streak end in a split decision loss to Karolina Kowalkiewicz at April’s UFC 223, therefore stalling her hoped-for contendership.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal first reported the bout. Three other solid fights were also reported for the card. Veteran light heavyweight Ovince Saint Preux will face prospect Alex Reyes. Lina Lansberg will meet Yana Kunitskaya at women’s bantamweight and Ryan LaFlare will face Tony Martin at welterweight.

Saint Preux is coming off a submission win over Tyson Pedro this June. The veteran has won four out of his last five UFC bouts. Reyes is one of the division’s hottest prospects because he has finished all three of his UFC matches.

Lansberg and Kunitskaya share the unfortunate distinction of having been victims of UFC women’s featherweight champion Cris Cyborg. The two women will compete at 135 pounds for this event.

LaFlare has won three of his last four, while Martin has won four of his last five. The fight promises to be a closely matched affair due to their recent runs.

UFC 229 will go down October 6, 2018, from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The blockbuster Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor lightweight title fight could break pay-per-view records due to the amount of hype involved.

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Dustin Poirier Updates Status Of Nate Diaz Fight

According to Dustin Poirier, the Nate Diaz fight is still a go.

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Dustin Poirier says his Nate Diaz fight is still on.

The returning Diaz has been making headlines since the UFC officially announced his comeback at the 25th Anniversary Press conference last week.

But the 33-year-old Stockton fighter felt upstaged by UFC President Dana White. As the promotional video for Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov started to play, Diaz snuck out a side door.

He wasn’t done talking just yet, however. Diaz walked outside and had a makeshift press conference of his own. There, he expressed his many frustrations with the UFC and White, even going so far as to say he wouldn’t fight on that show.

Making an appearance on this week’s episode of “The MMA Hour,” Poirier would explain how he isn’t concerned in the least bit as it comes to the Diaz fight.

“I mean, as far as I know. I think I’m the one fighting the guy. If something changed, I think they would have let me know. I haven’t heard anything. Nate says a lot of stuff, but when he signs a fight contract, I don’t really know of any times that he’s not shown up to fight or pulled out of a fight. He says a lot of stuff and does a lot of stuff in the media between fights, but when he signs a contract, the guy shows up and puts it all on the line every time.”

Only Diaz knows exactly why he fled the presser in the manner he did, but Poirier believes it was a case of poor timing.

“I think what it was is, he was upset that he came down to do the press conference and then they promoted Conor and Khabib, and those guys weren’t even there and he was there,” Poirier said. “I don’t know, I think that’s maybe more of what it was, like he wasted his time promoting these other guys while he’s there on stage and they didn’t talk about his fight, type of thing. But I’m not 100 percent [sure]. That’s just hearsay.”

After Poirier knocked out Eddie Alvarez at UFC on FOX 30, he said he would wait as long as he needed to for a title shot. Not even two weeks later the Lafayette, Louisiana, native had agreed to fight Diaz at UFC 230.

“Putting the title aside, Nate’s probably the second-biggest fight that I can get. It would be Conor, that would be the biggest fight obviously, and then it’s Nate Diaz. In the lightweight division, that’s the biggest fight I can get right now. And Nate’s a guy I’ve always watched fight. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time, I’ve always wanted to fight him. And Madison Square Garden is another part of it, I’ve always wanted to fight at Madison Square Garden. There’s so much history there. I’ve fought a lot of places, that’s one place I want to scratch off the list. So this fight just made sense.”

“If the UFC told me that, ‘Yeah, you’re going to fight for the belt in four months,’ I could’ve waited four or five months. But the way it looks, Conor and Khabib are going to fight towards the end of the year, then I don’t know what’s going to happen, when the belt’s going to be defended again, and you never know what’s going to happen, man, so I don’t want to wait 10 months. I want to stay busy and this fight made a lot of sense to me.”

Poirier will be looking to make it five straight against Diaz come UFC 230, a feat rarely achieved in the lightweight division. Moreover, a win over Diaz would, in theory, make Poirier the clear cut #1 contender to the winner of the Conor vs. Khabib title fight. A fact “The Diamond” is readily aware of, and one he believes is necessary for his own legacy.

“He’s just another guy who’s been around a long time, a legend of the sport,” Poirier said. “Beating him after I beat Eddie Alvarez, I’m going back-to-back on the guys who I think are some of the biggest names in lightweight history, so that’s just solidifying me as being amongst those guys. When it’s all said and done, when I get my title shot, when I get the belt, like I said before, this is just all part of the legacy. This is part of the reason why I fight.”

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Dana White Predicts Conor vs. Khabib Will Smash UFC PPV Record

There’s little doubt that the upcoming Conor vs. Khabib megafight at UFC 229 will be one of the biggest fights in MMA history. Just how big remains to be seen. McGregor already owns the record for most pay-per-view (PPV) buys sold for his anticipated rematch with Nate Diaz at 2016’s UFC 202. That card sold […]

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There’s little doubt that the upcoming Conor vs. Khabib megafight at UFC 229 will be one of the biggest fights in MMA history.

Just how big remains to be seen.

McGregor already owns the record for most pay-per-view (PPV) buys sold for his anticipated rematch with Nate Diaz at 2016’s UFC 202. That card sold 1.6 million buys, and he also owns the Nos. 2 and 3 spots. The infamous Irishman brought in 1.3 million buys apiece for his initial meeting with Diaz at UFC 196 and his title win over Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205.

UFC President Dana White thinks McGregor will smash that record when he faces Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 in October. Speaking to TSN Sports‘ Aaron Bronsteter, White believes the biggest fight of the year will bring two million:

“We’re looking at two million pay-per-view buys.There was really no problems putting this fight together. It’s what makes Conor McGregor such an international superstar. This guy fights anybody, anywhere, any time. After a two-year layoff, he comes right out of the gate and wants Khabib and Khabib, who’s undefeated and obviously destroyed everybody in front of him, wants this fight now and wants to defend his title against Conor McGregor.”

There’s a good chance of Conor vs. Khabib breaking the UFC record for PPV buys; that much is certain.

But hitting the never-before-seen watermark of two million buys is another thing altogether. With UFC PPV sales at an all-time low, it may take quite the promotion to make the card reach such a level.

And with less than two months remaining until fight time, it may be tough to build that kind of hype.

Do you agree with White’s optimistic prediction for the massive event?

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