It’s been more than six years since Conor
McGregor and Dustin
Poirier first squared off in the Ultimate Fighting
Championship, and much has changed since then.
However, John
Kavanagh, McGregor’s head trainer, believes that Poirier will
nonetheless struggle to erase the memory of a first-round technical
knockout loss to McGregor at UFC 178 in September 2014. The two men
will have their rematch in the UFC 257 main event in Abu Dhabi on
Jan. 23.
“I think you can spend a lifetime going to sports psychologists and
talking to this person and that person; that’s not going to have
been erased from his mind,” Kavanagh told The Mac Life. “He
knows that he is facing somebody who can shut off his lights very,
very rapidly and now is a lot more powerful and a lot more
experienced than he was even then, so it’s a tough, uphill battle
for Dustin.”
Their first meeting occurred at featherweight, and set the stage
for a title run for the Irish star. Poirier, meanwhile, moved to
155 pounds in his next fight and has gone 10-2 in the weight class,
winning interim gold before being submitted by Khabib
Nurmagomedov in a title unification bout at UFC 242.
Kavanagh believes Poirier has evolved since his first fight with
McGregor, but he says that “The Diamond” hasn’t faced an opponent
with the power that the “Notorious” one possesses.
“I think [Poirier] has definitely gotten better,” Kavanagh said.
“There’s a few more takedown attempts now in his fights. I hadn’t
seen it before. He has a good guillotine. We can see that. Then his
volume and his conditioning is looking on point. You can see in his
fights he has an ability to take a lot of punishment and still come
forward. Pick any of last few fights to see that quality.
“However, he’s fighting a different animal than any of those guys:
somebody with true, one-punch knockout power that he’s already
felt.”
After besting Poirier, McGregor went on to become a two-division
champion and has even taken three fights at 170 pounds. He also
earned the biggest payday of his career for facing Floyd
Mayweather in a boxing match in August 2017.
Although Poirier has been more active in UFC competition than
McGregor, Kavanagh thinks the American Top Team product will notice
his opponent’s size and power come fight night. Regardless, the SBG
Ireland leader is intrigued to see how the rematch plays out.
“It was a bad night for Dustin,” Kavanagh said. “It was very
one-sided, and when you look at some of the shots he’s absorbed –
now he’s a bigger man now, and you can say maybe there’s some
argument he can absorb more shots now, but he’s fighting a bigger
man, as well. Even if you remember back to the fight, the opening
hook kick, it just whistled by his head. A couple of inches lower,
that might have even outdone the Aldo fight.
“So look, they’ve both matured physically. Age-wise, you know,
they’re in their 30s now and [have] families. Dustin’s had a couple
of more contests then Conor since then in the Octagon. Conor’s
never stopped training and has obviously had a boxing match and has
done other stuff, so it’s interesting to see how the styles meet up
this time.”