UFC: Dustin Poirier gives prediction for Khabib vs Justin Gaethje fight
- ‘The Diamond’ weighs in on upcoming lightweight title fight – and thinks Gaethje can ‘trouble’ Nurmagomedov
- ‘It’s gonna be hard to get Justin down and hold him in the open space,’ says former interim champ
If anybody is well placed to weigh in on the upcoming UFC lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje, it’s Dustin Poirier.
“The Diamond” faces Dan Hooker at UFC Vegas 4 this weekend, as he looks to bounce back from that third-round submission defeat by Nurmagomedov in Abu Dhabi last September, which saw him relinquish his interim title to the champ.
With “The Eagle” stranded in Russia because of the coronavirus, a new interim champ was crowned at UFC 249 last month when Gaethje shocked Tony Ferguson, who had been set to finally fight the Dagestan native.
“Hey man, let the best fighter win,” Poirier told reporters at the UFC’s virtual media day. “Whoever performs the best on the night, whoever prepares the best for the fight and gets their hand raised, whoever it is. That’s all I gotta say.”
With an impressive fourth-round TKO win over Gaethje in April 2018, Poirier knows just how much of a threat his fellow American will pose to Nurmagomedov when they finally meet later this year.
And theoretically, a win over Gaethje means he would be high on the list for a title shot, should Gaethje shock Khabib.
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“I’m not really rooting for anybody in that fight,” he said, however. “But I do think if Gaethje can keep the fight in the middle of the Octagon, he can give Khabib some trouble.
“I think it’s gonna be hard to get him down in the open space, and definitely hard to hold him in the open space. But will Justin be able to keep his back off the fence and land those shots and make Khabib work for takedowns in the open? That’s the question.”
