Dustin Poirier knows the kind of threat both Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje can provide.
Having competed against both, knocking Gaethje out in an all-out war in 2018 and recently getting submitted by Oliveira in a lightweight title bout at UFC 269, Poirier (28-7 MMA, 20-6 UFC) is familiar with both men.
Oliveira (32-8 MMA, 20-8 UFC) is now set to defend his title against Gaethje (23-3 MMA, 6-3 UFC) at UFC 274 in May, and while Poirier didn’t make an official prediction for the fight, he thinks the reigning champion has more tools.
“Charles has more ways to win,” Poirier said in an interview with Inside Fighting. “Justin has to knock him out. I think Charles can knock Justin out. Charles can submit him. Charles can win a decision. He has more ways to win. I’m not saying that Gaethje won’t knock him out. Charles is a guy who gets hit a lot. In his last two fights, he’s touched the canvas in both fights, and Gaethje is a guy if he gets you hurt, he usually puts you away. He has big power, so if you’re able to get touched, you might not recover. It’s an interesting fight, but Charles has more ways to win.”
Poirier had early success against Oliveira, knocking him down in Round 1. But just like his title fight against Michael Chandler, Oliveira was able to weather an early storm, eventually submitting “The Diamond” in Round 3.
Looking back, Poirier says he would have done several things differently.
“I should have done a better job with my footwork,” Poirier said. “Not allow myself to be clinched up as easy and kind of smothered my striking output by getting that close, allowing him to walk forward and just get into that clinch range. Obviously second round, I wouldn’t have given up the round like that, I would have maybe tried to use my jiu-jitsu to sweep or submit him. There’s a bunch of stuff.”
He continued, “I hit him with some good shots. He was more durable than I thought he was going to be. He stayed in the fight, as he did in his fight before that with Chandler. He got hit with some big shots, went down, almost got finished and came back to win. Showed the world once again that he has what it takes to be a world champion.”
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