The Conway UFC Predictions: Khabib vs Poirier

The Conway UFC Predictions: Khabib vs Poirier

By Alex Conway

Nurmagomedov vs. Poirier

The game plan for Nurmagomedov is always straightforward and simple. He wants to take his opponents down, maul them and break them.

He’ll find that interim champ Dustin Poirier might just be the toughest opponent he’s ever faced. It’s not that Nurmagomedov can’t take Poirier down, he can. It’s not that he can’t overwhelm Poirier, he probably will.
It’s that Poirier is uniquely positioned with his power punching on the feet and dangerous and underrated submission game on the ground and battle tested UFC experience to test Nurmagomedov in ways that no previous opponent could.

Nurmagomedov likes to break people with pace, but Poirier is coming off fights with Max Holloway, Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje and Anthony Pettis. Pace won’t break The Diamond. But skills might.

Nobody chains grappling together better than Nurmagomedov.

What Poirier likes to do when his opponent gets their hands on him is go for submissions, but Nurmagomedov wins hand battles better than anyone in the UFC today.

Nurmagomedov makes it a point to secure his opponent’s hands before going for anything major and that will take away one of Poirier’s biggest defense tactics.

Where this fight gets interesting is what happens if Poirier lands shots early that take away the ferociousness of Nurmagomdov’s stamina and grappling? We’ve truly never seen anyone hurt Nurmagomedov. I think we see him get in trouble at least once this fight.

I’m going with Nurmagomedov for the win here, but this has a Israel Adesanya-Kelvin Gastelum vibe to it where we learn a lot about the winner and just as much about the loser and the fans get a classic fight to remember for ages.