Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier meet for the third time at UFC 264 on Saturday, July 10, from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. McGregor won their first fight at UFC 178 via first-round TKO. A little more than six years later, at UFC 257, Poirier evened things up, winning via second-round TKO.
Who emerges victorious in the rubber match?
Some pundits are picking McGregor, and some are going with Poirier. But one of MMA's dominant forces chimed in recently as former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre gave his prediction in a video posted on the Tristar Gym’s YouTube channel. Tristar is where St-Pierre trained when he was an active fighter. When it came down to who wins the trilogy, St-Pierre leaned towards one of the most popular athletes in all of sports.
“I think McGregor is very good in rematches — and I think he’s going to have the victory,” St-Pierre said in the video.
“I think he’s probably going to win in the second round by knockout.”
St-Pierre's long-time head coach at Tristar, Firas Zahabi, went the other way and took Poirier to repeat his performance a little over five months ago.
“My official pick was 50-50 odds,” Zahabi said. “I think it could go either way, but because GSP picked McGregor, I’ve got to pick Poirier. I’m going to make a case for Poirier right now. I think at 155 (pounds), McGregor’s power is maybe not exactly what it used to be, and he’s got to do five rounds. I think Poirier showed in fight number two, he’s smart enough to take McGregor in the later rounds. And you know what? In round one, he took a big left, and he took it well. I think psychologically, now Poirier’s a bit more ready to take that left hand. And he’s more aware about it.
“I think this is an incredibly difficult fight. Fifty-fifty, but if Georges picked McGregor, I’ve got to pick Poirier, and I think Poirier’s going to take him in round three, and he’s going to do the same thing he did before. He’s going to kick the leg, he’s going to injure McGregor a little bit on the leg, and then he’s going to put the hands on him. It’s going to be a trench war — and Poirier’s gonna put him away.”