UFC will be returning to Las Vegas this weekend for a double-header title fight with the main event featuring Charles Oliviera defending his Lightweight title for the first time against former interim champion Dustin Poirier.
After consecutive big-money fight wins against Conor McGregor it’s finally time for the #1 contender Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier to step back in the Octagon in an attempt to claim the UFC Lightweight Championship against champion Charles Oliveira.
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Charles “Do Bronx” Oliviera (31-8-0) won the vacant Lightweight title back in may after scoring a surprising comeback knockout against Michael Chandler at UFC 262. It was a long journey to the top for Oliviera who was finished four times in six fights between 2015 and 2017. Since then, he has found his rhythm in the Lightweight division. With that win against Michael Chandler in his bag, the Brazilian is now on a nine-fight win streak. With an amazing BJJ background, he is one of the best grapplers in the world and also holds the UFC record for the most submission wins (14), but taking the past few fights into consideration, we can see that he has vastly improved as a striker with 3 of his last 5 fights ending via KO/TKO.
As for Dustin Poirier (28-6-0), he picked up a TKO win against Conor McGregor in July after the Notorious suffered a broken tibia. In his last 9 fights, The Diamond is 8-1 which includes some high-profile wins against Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez, and Anthony Pettis. His only loss came against the then Lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov two years ago. The 32-year-old American martial artist is very strong and combines some of the best boxing skills in the promotion with good grappling ability.
Charles Oliviera | Dustin Poirier | |
32 | Age | 32 |
5’10 | Height | 5’9 |
155 lbs | Weight | 156 lbs |
74’ | Reach | 72’ |
31 - 8 - 0 (9 KOs) | Record | 28 - 6 - 0 (17 KOs) |
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In the past, we have seen Charles Oliviera being sent to the canvas by fighters like Paul Federer, Max Holloway, Donald Cerrone, and Cub Swanson and none of them possess the same striking power as Dustin Poirier. With four of the last six fights coming via KO leaves us with nothing more to say about his power. One thing that’s clear is that Poirier is not going to take things to the canvas because we all know how dangerous Charles Oliviera can be. So Poirier’s game plan is straight, it’s going to be more like a stand and bang thing for the former interim champion. In his 2 victories against Dan Hooker and Max Holloway, the Diamond landed a total of 131 and 153 strikes respectively which is what he’s going to do against Oliviera till he finds the big one which sends him to sleep.
[Featured Image Credit: UFC]
Shashank Iyer