Marcus “Conan” Silveira will have a busy weekend ahead of him at
UFC
269.
The American Top Team head coach is already in Las Vegas to support
a number of his fighters including Dustin
Poirier, Amanda
Nunes, Santiago
Ponzinibbio and Pedro
Munhoz. Poirier will challenge Charles
Oliveira for lightweight gold in the main event, and Silveira
is confident “The Diamond” can finish the Brazilian champion inside
the distance.
“Charles has won nine fights [in a row] and proved he deserved to
get the belt, but Poirier trained really hard for this challenge,”
Silveira told Sherdog.com. “I believe he will catch Oliveira in the
stand-up.”
If Poirier wins, Silveira believes a fourth bout with Conor
McGregor would be a suitable next move. Their third meeting
ended when the Irish star suffered a broken leg at the end of the
first round this past July.
“The last one did not finish well,” Silveira said. “I think Conor
deserves that rematch.”
In regards to the UFC 269 co-main event, Silveira revealed that
Nunes didn’t have a difficult time making the cut to bantamweight
after defending the featherweight belt in her previous Octagon
appearance in March. “Lioness” will face Julianna
Pena in a 135-pound title bout on Saturday.
“Everything went out perfectly in this camp. Amanda trained hard to
beat Pena and I believe, sooner or later, she will get a
knockout win,” Silveira said.
The ATT coach is also confident that both Ponzinibbio, who faces
Geoff
Neal, and Munhoz, who will meet Dominick
Cruz, can use aggression in their favor.
“I think Dominick’s cutting angle game is pretty much unrivaled. He
will have a hard time dealing with Pedro´s aggressiveness. This kid
punches like a heavyweight and sooner or later Cruz will be caught
as well as Neal,” Silveira said. “Santiago is a savage, walks
forward all the time and he is coming in great shape for that
fight.”