Dustin Poirier shares violent prediction for UFC 302 title fight against Islam Makhachev

Dustin Poirier has shared a violent prediction for his UFC 302 title fight against Islam Makhachev.

Poirier is set for his third crack at the UFC’s undisputed lightweight title as he takes on Makhachev on June 1 in the main event of UFC 302 in Newark, New Jersey.

Entering the fight, Poirier is a sizeable underdog, and Makhachev has already vowed to finish the American.

“We will start and I will try to take him down,” Makhachev told Yahoo Sports. “He will try to get me in a guillotine [choke]. I will defend the guillotine. I will give him a couple of punches. He will give his back. Then I will finish. One day maybe, I hope [Poirier] will finish his guillotine on someone. But it’s not going to be me.”

Yet, speaking to Yahoo Sports Dustin Poirier has plenty of confidence heading into the scrap and shared a violent prediction for the bout.

https://twitter.com/DovySimuMMA/status/1792974284345782610

“I’m going to knock him unconscious and the ref is going to be pulling me off of him,” Poirier said.

If Poirier does KO Makhachev it would be a statement-making performance as not only would he become the UFC champion, but he would have pulled off one of the bigger upsets in UFC history. But, Poirier certainly has KO power and Makhachev’s lone loss is by knockout, which is why ‘The Diamond’ feels like he can do just that at UFC 302 to become the new champion.

Dustin Poirier is coming off a second-round knockout win over Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299 to return to the win column after a KO loss to Justin Gaethje. Poirier is 2-2 in his last four, as he also lost to Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title and submitted Michael Chandler.

Poirier is the former interim lightweight champ and holds notable wins over Conor McGregor (x2), Max Holloway (x2), Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez, and Anthony Pettis among others.