Dustin Poirier “the calmest” he’s been ahead of Conor McGregor fight, expects another stoppage win, says coach

DPhil Daru, Dustin Poirier’s strength and conditioning coach, says “The Diamond” is the calmest he’s ever been before a fight.

In the main event of UFC 264, Poirier is set for his trilogy match against McGregor in a highly-anticipated fight. For Daru, he says ever since the first fight he has been game planning on how to train Poirier for the trilogy. However, he says they have been cautious to not overtrain The Diamond and they believe he’s in perfect condition for the fight on Saturday.

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“He’s a true professional, man. When you get to that elite level they know their body really well. For me, I’m just helping him understand where he needs to go and guiding him but he’s the driver, I’m just the one navigating,” Daru said on Just Scrap Radio on BJPENN.com about Dustin Poirier. “With that, I’m making sure that when we started camp we developed a large base of general preparedness. Basically what that means is I’m giving him enough strength, fitness, and overall aerobic capacity so when we get into camp and do higher frequency training he’s able to recover faster because his aerobic base is so high. What we want to accomplish is we are slowly progressing over time and when I feel like we need to pull it back we will do so.”

In the lead-up to the fight, Daru says Poirier is as calm and confident as he’s ever been. Although they know McGregor is super dangerous, the entire team is confident Poirier is prepared properly to get the win.

“The one thing he is now that I would say is different from most of the other fights is he’s super calm. He’s confident, he knows what he’s getting himself into,” Daru said about Poirier. “He doesn’t take Conor lightly or anything of that nature but he’s confident in his abilities and he knows what he needs to do. I would say he’s the calmest that I’ve seen him in all of his fights. Obviously, he’s going to be fatigued with the dieting and the weight cut and the training but for the most part, he feels good.”

Throughout training camp, Daru and the other coaches have been confident Poirier will stop McGregor again. Despite the fact they believe Poirier will get the win, Daru has been training The Diamond to be able to take the fight to the later rounds as they are confident the longer the fight goes the better it is for them.

“These guys make those little corrections based upon the last fight and Conor is definitely doing that for sure,” Daru said about Poirier-McGregor 3. “I don’t see an issue with it going the distance, Dustin has a huge amount of endurance, and his ability to sustain outputs is very high. He has that naturally but we also work that in the gym.

“If we do take it to the later rounds, it’s actually better for us. I’m looking forward to it but when you talk about predictions, I don’t see it going five rounds,” Daru continued about his UFC 264 prediction for Poirier-McGregor 3. “I do see Conor making the mistake of trying to end the fight early and make a statement and it’s going to cost him. We’ll see, everything plays out different, it’s the fight game and we understand that.”

If Poirier does end up stopping McGregor again at UFC 264, Daru has joked to Poirier that he would retire.

“It’s funny I was joking with him that if he wins I’d retire, as there’s be nothing else I’d need to accomplish in this sport. That’s where it marks on my level of importance,” Daru concluded.

What do you make of Phil Daru saying Dustin Poirier is the most calm he’s ever been?