Dustin Poirier has given his candid breakdown of Justin Gaethje’s path to victory against Ilia Topuria ahead of their UFC Freedom 250 headliner on June 14 at the White House.
Gaethje enters the matchup as the interim UFC lightweight champion with a 27-5 MMA and 10-5 UFC record, while Topuria holds the UFC lightweight title and an undefeated 17-0 MMA and 9-0 UFC slate.
Poirier, who has fought Gaethje twice with both men earning knockout wins in their series, sees the matchup as a difficult stylistic test for “The Highlight.” “It's not that I'm rooting against him or anything, I just think it's a tough stylistic matchup for him,” Poirier said.
Poirier believes Gaethje must lean into his trademark violence to have success. “Everything he throws is 100 percent. He can knock him out if he can get Ilia to brawl. But he has to set up those leg kicks. He can't throw them dry, like empty leg kicks like that. He has to throw punches and finish combinations with leg kicks. Ilia's too sharp to just throw single legs. He's going to get counterpunched. ... In his mind, he might know he needs chaos to land that knockout shot.”
Poirier also highlighted Gaethje’s punishing kicks, noting, “He tore my legs up. He tore Chandler's. He's done it to a lot of people,” but warned that precision will be critical: “This fight he has to be perfect because Topuria is so dangerous.”
