Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman shared his prediction for the upcoming Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier trilogy fight.
McGregor and Poirier meet for the third and presumably the final time this Saturday night in the main event of UFC 264. With the all-time series tied at 1-1 apiece between the two bitter rivals, the winner of this weekend’s big fight will earn eternal bragging rights as the winner of the trilogy, not to mention earn a title shot against UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira. Oh, and there is quite a bit of money that will be on the line, as well.
Speaking to ESPN, Weidman was asked about how he thinks the third fight between “Notorious” and “The Diamond” will go, and this is what “The All-American” thinks happens.
“After watching their second fight, I’ve gotta go with Poirier. He just mixes it up so much better than Conor, and you could see in January that Conor just didn’t have that same energy we are used to seeing him have. That excitement. That fire. He’s always had that, where he just walks in the cage and is like, ‘This is my cage.’ You didn’t see that in him last time. So, until Conor can prove me wrong, I’ve gotta go with Poirier,” Weidman said.
It will be interesting to see how this third matchup between McGregor and Poirier plays out. As Weidman said, Poirier is generally able to mix things up much better than McGregor does, as the Irishman is typically just a striker while Poirier is a fully-fledged mixed martial artist who incorporates all the different aspects of his game. Perhaps McGregor will look to change up his strategy this time around and make it more of an MMA fight rather than just a pure striking battle, but that remains to be seen.
Do you agree with the prediction that Chris Weidman has for Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 3?