Dustin Poirier: Conor McGregor and I are ‘dangerous’ matchups for Michael Chandler
Dustin Poirier believes both he and Conor McGregor would be bad matchups for Michael Chandler.
Following his spectacular knockout win over Tony Ferguson at UFC 274, Chandler (23-7 MMA, 2-2 UFC) called out McGregor and the winner of Charles Oliveira vs. Justin Gaethje, which ended up being Oliveira by submission.
Poirier (28-7 MMA, 20-6 UFC) admits he was surprised that Chandler didn’t mention his name, but if either he or McGregor were to fight him, he thinks their power would be too much for Chandler, who’s taken quite a bit of damage in his past few fights.
“I’m a dangerous fight for him,” Poirier said on “THE FIGHT with Teddy Atlas.” “I think I’m a clean puncher, accurate. He called out Conor. I think Conor is a dangerous fight for him, too. I’m not saying Chandler’s chinny or anything, but he gets hurt in a lot of his fights and guys like Conor, they can punch. If you’re getting hurt by Tony Ferguson and dropped by Oliveira, guys like me, guys like Conor, if we touch your chin, it’s gonna be bad.”
After a clean knockout win over Dan Hooker in his UFC debut, Chandler was knocked out by Oliveira for the vacant lightweight title at UFC 262. He then fell short in a “Fight of the Year” brawl against Justin Gaethje at UFC 268 but was able to rebound with a win over Ferguson.
However, prior to scoring that front-kick knockout, Chandler had to battle through adversity when he was knocked down in Round 1. Poirier explains that Chandler’s risk taking on offense is why he’s been dropped in his past three fights.
“That’s the reason he gets hurt in these fights, because you can’t have an offense and a defense, and he’s all offense,” Poirier said. “Jumping forward, lunging forward, and you know what they say, when your feet leave the ground in boxing, you get carried out. Jumping around, throwing punches in the air, you can’t pivot, you can’t move, you’ll run into big shots. You jump in, you get carried out.”
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