Inför helgens match mellan Dustin Poirier och Conor McGregor menar Poiriers coach att mycket har ändrats sedan de två möttes första gången.
Nu till helgen kommer Dustin Poirier och Conor McGregor att ställas mot varandra i huvudmatchen på UFC 257. Detta blir den andra gången de två möts och enligt Poiriers huvudcoach, Mike Brown, har mycket förändrats sedan den första matchen.
Poirier gynnas av en längre match
Det var under en intervju med MMA Junkie inför helgens match som Brown först berättade att Poirier kommer att gynnas av att matchen går så långt som möjligt då en av McGregors svagheter är dennes kondition, detta samtidigt som Poiriers kondition hyllas.
Anybody that knows this sport will realize quickly that the longer it goes, the better it is for Dustin. Conor’s obviously struggled with conditioning. This is not his strong suit. Obviously he’s got great timing, good power and good precision, a very good striker, but we’ve seen him more than once struggle with conditioning, and this is also Dustin’s strong suit. He’s got some of the best natural conditioning I’ve ever seen. He could be drinking beers and eating cheeseburgers and he can come off the couch and be sparring with world-class fighters that are peaking and he’s in better shape than them. He’s definitely got some gifts and a talent there, and it’s one of his gifts.
Mycket har förändrats
Enligt Brown har mycket förändrats sedan det första mötet mellan Poirier och McGregor. Brown lyfter framförallt den mentala utveckling som skett hos Poirier.
A lot has changed. So much has changed. They’re really different people at this point. Six years of development in a sport, you’re almost a completely different athlete. I would say besides all the technique and technical improvements, it’s mostly about the mindset – the ability to relax in certain situations and suppress emotion and things of this nature. I think this is really where the biggest changes are made, are major technical changes that we don’t want to get into too much.
I think he’s in a good place. I think he’s very confident. I think he believes in himself 100 percent, and that’s what’s most important. I think he knows he can win this fight, and he knows he’ll win this fight, and he has that mindset coming in. He’s in great shape and he’s ready.
En svaghet som Poirier kan uttnyttja
Brown nämnde slutligen hur matchen handlar om att sudda ut ett misstag från Poiriers sida samt att han ser konditionen som en stort svaghet från McGregors sida, en svaghet som Poirier kan utnyttja.
It’s a rematch of a blemish – he doesn’t have many of them – that he’d like to erase. McGregor always comes with something new and something fresh and something different. Honestly, we see some technical holes in the game. But most importantly, we see a lot of what everybody sees: He definitely has a weakness in conditioning. That’s something we’d be smart to exploit if possible. Poirier is a guy that’s great conditioning, a volume puncher with big power in both hands and both legs, and it doesn’t go away. He can knock you out with either hand or either leg in Round 1 or Round 5, and it doesn’t go away. That’s what makes him the world-class monster that he is.
Poirier och McGregor ställs mot varandra i huvudmatchen på UFC 257 som äger rum under natten till söndagen den 24:e januari.
