Artem Lobov believes Conor McGregor will give Dustin Poirier the respect he deserves in their trilogy bout.
McGregor and Poirier shared the Octagon in a rematch back in January. McGregor won their first encounter back in September 2014. In their second meeting, it was Poirier who scored a second-round TKO victory over the “Notorious” one. They will collide a third time on July 10 in the main event of UFC 264.
Lobov, a close friend and training partner of McGregor, told Cole Shelton for BJPenn.com that he feels the former UFC “champ-champ” didn’t give Poirier enough respect in their second clash.
“Absolutely and to be honest, it wasn’t like he wasn’t fully focused or anything, he just didn’t give Dustin the respect he deserved. He was more thinking about boxing Manny after the fight and was getting ready for that as Conor 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 improved a lot.”
The winner of Poirier vs. McGregor 3 could very well be due for a UFC Lightweight Title opportunity. Poirier had said that he wanted to give McGregor a third fight before chasing after the 155-pound gold. The current champion is Charles Oliveira, who defeated Michael Chandler back in May.
UFC 264 will be held inside the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The card is also set to feature a welterweight collision between Gilbert Burns and Stephen Thompson. Tai Tuivasa vs. Greg Hardy and Irene Aldana vs. Yana Kunitskaya will also be featured on the main card.
