UFC 242 free fight: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Dustin Poirier Preview and Schedule ahead of their UFC Lightweight Championship title unification bout.
UFC is set to host an event on the 7th of September at The Arena, Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates and will form a part of Abu Dhabi Showdown Week. This will be their first visit to the country since 2014 and their third overall.
The event will feature 13 matches on the card. 4 on the Early preliminary card, 4 on the preliminary card and 5 on the main card. The match that most people will look forward to is the main event match between Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Dustin Poirier.
Khabib Nurmagomedov is the reigning undisputed champion of the Lightweight division. His last match in the UFC was his successful title defence against the Notorious Connor McGregor last year. However, the post-match incident involving members from both camps led to his suspension.
While Khabib was out with a suspension, an Interim title was created and claimed by Dustin Poirier after he beat the reigning UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway via decision earlier this year. With Khabib back into the fold there can be only one champion in the division and the ultimate fighting champion of the two will come out the victor in their clash on September 7th.
UFC 242 will pit the two against one another where they are free to fight a slug-fest of epic proportions. Let us now breakdown the two fighters to see which one of the two hold the edge ahead of their title bout.
Striking
As far as Stand-up goes, Khabib is dwarfed by Poirier. The interim champion has seen off the likes of Anthony Pettis, Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez and Max Holloway at stand-up. The names mentioned are all excellent strikers but were all bettered by Poirier who is an extremely polished striker himself.
Khabib is no mug by any means. He has improved vastly when it comes to striking and even clipped Connor McGregor last year. However, he is still no match to Poirier when it comes to striking. Should the game be decided solely on the basis of their stand-up, Khabib is sure to lose the unification bout.
Grappling
Poirier is not just a good striker but he’s got immaculate wrestling and defensive skills as well. His 69% defence of takedowns per UFCStats.com is proof of that. The Interim champion can very well hold his game when it comes to grappling. However, Khabib is an all too unpredictable beast.
Like how Poirier holds the advantage when it comes to striking, Khabib is simply head and shoulders above him when it comes to grappling. Definitely one of the best wrestlers in the sport, Khabib has the unique ability to switch continoulsy until he has his opponent on the floor.
There is no defending. By the time you figure how to defend one technique, Khabib is already on the next move making it very hard to counter the reigning champion. It is here that Poirier’s defence should come handy but he will have to be at the top of his game.
Submission
Now this is the trickiest of the three. Unlike the skills before when one outmatched the other, this is one skill that both of them will fancy their chances in. As far as tricks in the bag go, Poirier has more options to get his opponent to submit. However, Khabib’s ability to bring his opponent to the mat means he will be presented with more chances to go for a lock.
Poirier though, is very versatile and is able to submit opponents off his back. Which means that Khabib will not have it as easy as one would have imagined. Khabib will likely attempt to close the spaces, making the ring available to Poirier much smaller and allowing him to trap his opponent and complete more takedowns.
Poirier on his part will have to pull out every trick in his bag and not let Khabib get very uncomfortable. He is after all just as unpredictable as the returning champion. By putting the seeds of doubts in Khabib’s head, he will allow himself more freedom in the ring.
It is very hard to predict who will come out the victor of the two. They seem very evenly matched to make a call. However, if one were to put their money on either of the two, Khabib seems like the safer option to come out on top at UFC 242 choose purely because of his mat wrestling.
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