MMA News: Former Title Challenger Has Fiery Words For Dustin Poirier Ahead Of UFC 264

KEY POINTS

Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor are set to fight on July 10
Dan Hardy believes McGregor is a better martial artist
Poirier wants to prove that his win last January wasn't a fluke

The highly-anticipated trilogy fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier set for UFC 264 on July 10 obviously had people talking about each fighters’ keys to victory and their opinions on the fighters.

Former UFC welterweight title contender Dan Hardy went on Submission Radio and shared his thoughts on the fight.

He then said that McGregor is a more complete martial artist, a better one at that.

“I do think he’s a better martial artist just generally than Poirier. I think he’s got a better mastery of range and striking, a better understanding of the application of martial arts and how to work somebody over psychologically as well,” said Hardy.

Of course, Hardy also believes that skills and talent won’t bring about a McGregor victory with ease.

“You’ve got to earn it as well. You can’t just get in there with the skills that you’ve earned in your early career and expect it to carry you all the way, especially when you’ve got a dog in front of you like Poirier who’ll just take you into deep waters and see what you’re made of.”

McGregor scored a first-round knockout on Poirier in their first meeting back in 2014, which led to the American’s first UFC loss via knockout and the Irishman’s second-straight “Performance of the Night” bonus.

Mixed martial arts star Conor McGregor was the highest paid athlete in the world in 2020 accordig to a Forbes annual list GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Steve Marcus

Despite McGregor looking to retire after knocking out Donald Cerrone in 2020, a second fight between him and Poirier was set for UFC 257 in January of this year.

Poirier regained himself from the loss in the initial encounter and handed McGregor his first knockout loss in his career with a second-round TKO.

For Poirier, he’s more than excited to prove that McGregor’s time in the Octagon is up.

Poirier had a sit-down interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto and had a lot of things to say about his opponent.

“It’s me trying to show that January wasn’t a fluke, him trying to show that he’s still relevant, that he still wants to be the world champion at 155 pounds,” said the former interim lightweight champion.

“Because I was pushing to fight at a heavier weight. I wanted to fight 170 [pounds]. I didn’t want to cut down to ’55 again. But he wants to do it at ’55, UFC wants it at ’55, so I know what that means. That means the winner of this fight’s fighting for the belt.”