Artem Lobov thinks longtime training partner and good friend Conor McGregor might have underestimated Dustin Poirier at UFC 257.
Poirier (27-6 MMA, 19-5 UFC) evened the score when he avenged his 2014 TKO loss to McGregor by scoring a second-round knockout in their rematch this past January. McGregor had some success on the feet early, but Poirier was able to mix things up with his wrestling and batter McGregor’s calf with kicks, which ultimately led to the finish.
McGregor and Poirier are set for their trilogy on July 10 at UFC 264, and judging by the way the first fight went in 2014, Lobov thinks McGregor (22-5 MMA, 10-3 UFC) may have undermined Poirier’s improvements as a fighter.
“To be honest, it’s not even that he wasn’t fully focused or anything, he just probably didn’t give Dustin the respect that he deserved,” Lobov told BJPenn.com. “He was more thinking about boxing Manny (Pacquiao) straight after the fight and was already getting ready for that because he saw that as the challenge, and Dustin was just going to be a warmup fight. Obviously it didn’t work out that way. Dustin did his homework, and he’s improved a lot.”
But despite Poirier’s success and intelligent game plan to methodically chop away at McGregor’s leg, Lobov thinks “The Notorious” will make the necessary adjustments to combat the low kicks and get the job done early when they square off at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“If you look at the second fight, it was kind of developing how the first fight went,” Lobov said. “That’s what I expected. The only thing that made a difference were the leg kicks. It’s not even that he wasn’t training (to defend) leg kicks, but those specific leg kicks are very unique. They’re unique in a way when you spar in training and you’re wearing shin pads, you won’t even feel those kicks.
“You will check the way Conor was checking, which is not lifting the check, but actually going into the kick, and that works perfectly normally. Especially with shin pads you won’t even realize there’s anything doing damage. But once you take them off, that little muscle that’s right beside your shin bone, it’s an issue. … Now that Conor is aware of that, I see the fight going the way it was already going to go, the way the first fight went. I see Conor stopping Dustin early in this fight. I see Conor stopping him in the first round.”
Artem Lobov: Conor McGregor didn’t give Dustin Poirier ‘respect he deserved’ in rematch