Georges St-Pierre thought Conor McGregor would beat Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.
Entering the fight, McGregor was the betting favorite and many thought he would KO Poirier again. However, that is far from what happened as “The Diamond” used leg kicks to hurt the Irishman and then went up top to knock him out which shocked St-Pierre.
“I thought Conor was going to win, but I was wrong. I was very surprised. Will he keep his composure under the pressure? I think one of Conor’s biggest strengths is that he overwhelms his opponents with his pressure, with his presence,” St-Pierre said to Michael Bisping on his podcast. “All the information he gives his opponent’s brain and the talking and all that, a lot of his opponents fold under pressure, but Poirier stayed sharp, and it was a real testament of how good he is. It was amazing. Now it will be really interesting to see how Conor comes back from it. I believe he can come back from that loss. He’s the kind of fighter who fuels him on confidence. That is how he performs at his best.”
St-Pierre himself is no stranger to being on the wrong side of an upset. After he lost to Matt Serra, “GSP” says he needed to change some things in his training and life and believes Conor McGregor needs to do the same.
“I think he needs to be reborn. He needs to change things in his training and in his life that he believes were the causes for his failure. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not as long as he believes,” St-Pierre said. “So in my case, when I lost to Matt Serra, I trained myself to believe that I lost to Matt Serra because I underestimated him. Maybe I wasn’t scared enough, maybe I didn’t put too much in training, that’s what I tried to force myself to believe. Maybe it’s not true,
“But the important part is that he believes in it so he can build on his confidence from it,” St-Pierre continued. “He needs to find what he thinks he did wrong in his previous preparation leading up to the fight, whether it’s his training leading up to his fight or whatever, and not make the same mistake twice.”
Georges St-Pierre believes Conor McGregor will make the necessary adjustments next time out as he did after his losses to Nate Diaz and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
What do you make of Georges St-Pierre’s advice to Conor McGregor?