Conor McGregor is 'more powerful' now than when he knocked Dustin Poirier out at UFC 178: John Kavanagh
Conor McGregor's coach John Kavanagh believes that Dustin Poirier will be facing an uphill battle when he takes on the former two-division UFC champion at UFC 257 on January 23.
As we inch closer to the first UFC pay-per-view of the season, the hype surrounding the Dustin Poirier-Conor McGregor rematch seems to be increasing with every passing day. Fans want to find out if Poirier has learned from his devastating defeat at the hands of the Irishman at UFC 178 in 2014. In a recent interview with The Mac Life, McGregor's coach Jon Kavanagh praised The Diamond for improving a lot since losing to Conor.
However, even though he acknowledges that Poirier has worked on his stamina, size, grappling skills, and durability, Kavanagh believes that he will face a 'different animal' in Conor McGregor. Kavanagh said that Poirier is aware of the fact that Conor McGregor can 'shut his lights out' at any moment during the fight. He also mentioned that McGregor is also 'more powerful' than he was when he fought Poirier.
“I think Poirier has definitely gotten better. There’s a few more takedown attempts now in his fights. I hadn’t seen it before – he has a good guillotine. We can see that. Then his volume and his conditioning is looking on point. You can see in his fights he has an ability to take a lot of punishment and still come forward. However, he’s fighting a different animal than any of those guys.”
“He knows that he is facing somebody who can shut off his lights very, very rapidly and now is a lot more powerful and a lot more experienced than he was even then, so it’s a tough, uphill battle for Dustin.”
John Kavanagh claims Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier should be fighting for the lightweight title
John Kavanagh has been coaching McGregor even before the latter joined the UFC. He trained Conor for the first fight against Poirier and will once again try to come up with a plan that ensures victory for his star pupil in the rematch.
The fight between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier will have massive implications on the title picture in the lightweight division. Poirier had previously hinted that the fight could be for the UFC lightweight title which seems vacant following Khabib Nurmagomedov's retirement. However, Dana White has remained adamant that Khabib is still the champion and will return for another fight.
Kavanagh believes the undefeated Russian is truly retired and that Conor and Dustin should be fighting for the title but he thinks White isn't making it a title fight to lure Khabib into returning for a blockbuster rematch with the Irishman.