Dustin Poirier’s wish came to life when CEO Dana White, announced that he would lock horns with the current lightweight king, Islam Makhachev at the UFC 302 main event. In the build-up to the event, Arman Tsarukyan recently sat down with Daniel Cormier, to analyze The Diamond’s upcoming bout. Amidst several other observations, Tsarukyan opined that the current lightweight champ might avoid going for a strike-fest against Poirier during their battle.
The Louisiana native’s UFC record stands as the strongest reason behind ‘Ahalkalakets’ opinion. In fact, The Diamond’s incredible striking has been praised by many over the years. Even after a decade of his UFC tenure, Poirier still has enough to knock out young and hungry lightweight contenders like Benoit Saint-Denis.
This is why Tsarukyan assessed that Islam Makhachev wouldn’t like to get into a stand-and-strike-styled fight against Poirier at UFC 302. He said,
“Islam’s not gonna box with him [Poirier]. He’s not gonna strike with him. He’s gonna try to push him to the cage and take him down and try to submit him.”
A look at Makhachev’s origin and the camp where he trains indicates that Tsarukyan is probably right about how he might approach the UFC 302 main event.
On the other hand, Poirier has often been troubled by rivals like Charles Oliveira and Khabib Nurmagomedov due to their superb prowess on the ground. Hence, Makhachev’s ground game can subject him to a similar sort of trouble.
Will Dustin Poirier be able to handle Islam Makhchev’s superb ground game?
Islam Makhachev’s victory over the noted former UFC lightweight champ, Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 stands as a shining example of his incredible talent on the ground. ‘Du Bronx’ is one of the most reputed submission artists in the UFC and also holds the record of having the highest number of submission victories in UFC history. Still, he couldn’t do enough to resist Makhachev from gaining an arm-triangle submission victory over him.
It’s quite evident that Makhachev’s ground game is developed enough to gain a submission victory over Poirier. However, ‘The Diamond’ has been doing well on the ground since his last few encounters.
His UFC 281 rival, Michael Chandler, tried to wrestle with him after getting battered by Porier’s strikes in the first round. Even his last opponent, Benoit Saint-Denis tried to keep the fight mostly on the ground but got KO-ed in the second round.
Hence, even though Porier’s ground game has improved in recent times, it is unclear if he will be able to resist Makhachev’s high-class grappling at UFC 302.
