Superior fighter?
He got handled everywhere by poirier when they fought; the only success he has was a sloppy haymaker, a td, then some illegal knees.
He's looked like shit in all of his fights, even the ones he "won".
The guy was fortunate not to be on the chopping block after getting two extremely generous split decision wins where he absolutely sucked. The only reason he was probably awarded a title shot was because dana wanted to save face after giving him a huge contract.
He took some shots from poirier, but Eddie is a survivor. He often takes a big shot, gets dropped or hurt and comes back. He was taking back control of the fight at the end, even prior to the knee. It's weird when people talk about Eddie as if he's just this brawling fighter. I have a lot of boxing experience under my belt, I don't see what he's doing as sloppy at all. He definitely likes wars, he likes to battle you..he throws a lot of hooks, but Eddie also has some of the best boxing in the division behind Conor and Nate.
That said, Eddie's performance in his last fight was probably one of the best we've ever seen from him. Poirier just wasn't that Impressive at all. He was slow, his movement sucked, his defence sucked and technically he was very meh. Definitely some good / technical punches intermingled In there as well..but overall just not that Impressive outside of the stoppage. That said, poirier looked a little "off" mentally before the fight..just based on his body language, maybe it wasn't him at his best.
Still, I'm quite confident In saying that Eddie is the better boxer and overall fighter, his fight with poirier doesn't change that. Dustin having some success does not mean he was going to win that fight, Eddie had already taken back control even before the illegal knees.
That said, at the end of the day..this has nothing to do with ducking. Eddie just wants bigger fights. That's all It really comes down to. Stylistically he matches up very well against the higher ranked guys in the division, even Khabib..so why wouldn't he be chasing them. Instead of what would probably be a hard fight against Poirier that doesn't really take him anywhere either In pay or rankings.
