Dustin Poirier breaks down Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira's UFC 309 clash and predicts the winner: "I think it's a fun matchup"
Dustin Poirier recently gave his take on how the upcoming UFC 309 showdown between Michael Chandler and Charles Oliveira is likely to play out. 'The Diamond' counted the merits and demerits of both fighters to reveal who he thought would take the 'W' in the end.
The UFC 309 encounter will be the second fight between Chandler and Oliveira. Poirier has also locked horns with both of them once. The Lafayette native faced 'Do Bronx' in the main event of UFC 269 with UFC lightweight gold on the line. The fight turned out to be a heartbreaking one for Poirier as he tapped out to Oliveira's standing rear-naked choke in round three.
But he got the better of Chandler at their UFC 281 encounter via a rear-naked of his own in the third round. Poirier used his knowledge about both his former rivals to break down what their fight would look like. In a clip shared by Championship Rounds on X, Poirier was seen saying:
"I think it's a fun matchup. But I think if Charles Oliveira goes into this fight with the same mindset he had when I fought him or the first time Chandler fought him, I think he's gonna get the win. Obviously, Chandler is very explosive, an incredible athlete, and can hurt and put away Charles. But, I just think Charles is going to be better everywhere, on the feet and on the ground."
Dustin Poirier claims he was the first one to knock down Max Holloway
Max Holloway is loved and respected by MMA fans for several reasons, one of which is his incredible chin. Before his knockout loss against Ilia Topuria at the recently concluded UFC 308 event, Holloway held an incredible record of never being knocked down in his entire career.
Dustin Poirier, however, has refuted this stat during his appearance in a video on ESPN MMA's YouTube Channel.
Poirier rewatched his UFC 236 encounter alongside Din Thomas in the video. It was the 48-year-old former UFC fighter who initially pointed out that Poirier had scored a knockdown against Holloway with a strong jab in the second round. Thomas said:
"That's a knockdown! That's a knockdown, man. I didn't even recognize it before!"
Poirier agreed with Thomas' statement in his favor. He also realized that it wasn't counted as an official knockdown since Holloway prevented himself from falling with support from the cage, but he didn't change his narrative.
"Yeah, that's a knockdown. That [the cage] was a safety net. He had a safety net. They didn't call it a knockdown. [Otherwise] I'd have been the first guy to sit him down."
Check out the UFC 236 moment and the pair's reactions below (10:39):