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Thursday, Jul 01, 2021

Artem Lobov Believes Conor McGregor Underestimated Dustin Poirier, Was “Thinking” About Manny Pacquiao Fight

Poirier decking McGregor (image via UFC/YouTube)

By FCF Staff

Ahead of Conor McGregor’s rubber match with Dustin Poirier, Artem Lobov has stated he believes his friend was looking past Poirier in the rematch.

McGregor faced Poirier at UFC 257 in January, and the latter avenged his 2014 defeat to the star, by stopping the former champ in round two. Leading up to the fight, it was reported McGregor’s team was hoping to book a fight with boxing superstar, Manny Pacquiao.

Ahead of the July 10, trilogy fight between McGregor and Poirier, Lobov spoke with BJ Penn.com. While discussing how the rematch unfolded, Lobov relayed he thinks his teammate underestimated Poirier (quotes via MMA Junkie).

“To be honest, it’s not even that he wasn’t fully focused or anything, he just probably didn’t give Dustin the respect that he deserved,” Lobov said. “He was more thinking about boxing Manny (Pacquiao) straight after the fight and was already getting ready for that because he saw that as the challenge, and Dustin was just going to be a warmup fight. Obviously it didn’t work out that way. Dustin did his homework, and he’s improved a lot.”

Lobov also reported, however, that he believes McGregor will be victorious in the trilogy fight.

“You will check the way Conor was checking, which is not lifting the check, but actually going into the kick, and that works perfectly normally. Especially with shin pads you won’t even realize there’s anything doing damage. But once you take them off, that little muscle that’s right beside your shin bone, it’s an issue. … Now that Conor is aware of that, I see the fight going the way it was already going to go, the way the first fight went. I see Conor stopping Dustin early in this fight. I see Conor stopping him in the first round.”

UFC 264 will be hosted by the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

posted by FCF Staff @ 11:26 am
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