Georges St-Pierre believes Conor McGregor will get the nod ahead of his trilogy bout against Dustin Poirier.
The former welterweight and middleweight champion St-Pierre gave his prediction ahead of the UFC 264 main event between McGregor and Poirier on July 10th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. He believes that McGregor performs better against the same opponent in a rematch, which was evident in his second fight against Nate Diaz back in 2016. The Canadian thinks that is why McGregor will get the victory when he fights Poirier in their rubber match.
“I think McGregor is very good in rematches, and I think he’s going to have the victory,” St-Pierre said on the Tristar Gym YouTube channel. “I think he’s probably going to win in the second round. A knockout.”
Both men have a TKO win over each other with McGregor getting the edge in their first bout back in 2014. When they first shared the cage, both fighters were rising contenders in the 145 pound featherweight division. McGregor swiftly dispatched Poirier in the first round with relative ease and went on to become the featherweight champion the following year.
In their second bout earlier this year in January, both men had become seasoned veterans of the game with Poirier becoming one of the most dominant names in the 155-pound lightweight division. The Lafayette native moved up to lightweight after his defeat to McGregor and had 13 fights as a lightweight before their rematch at UFC 257. By this time, Poirier had established as one of the best fighters in the division defeating the likes of Anthony Pettis, Eddie Alvarez, and Max Holloway to earn himself an interim lightweight belt at UFC 236 in 2019.
Meanwhile, McGregor only had two fights as a lightweight, one of which was a crushing loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov. The stark difference in experience at 155 pounds showed in the fight, as Poirier was able to exact revenge and viciously knock out McGregor in the rematch in the second round.
Do you agree with GSP’s prediction that McGregor stops Poirier in the second round?