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I think they are making the same mistake with Oliveira that they made with Poirier, which was why Dustin was such a huge underdog against Max, Conor-2 and the fight was considered pretty close in a trilogy fight as well.
You can see what they were saying about Poirier in this thread.
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/is-dustin-poirier-the-best-striker-in-the-lw-history.4190204/
I think people sometimes underestimate what hard work with high level training available to fighters right now can do to improve fighters, especially younger fighters, relatively speaking anyways.
People kept thinking Poirier is a wild brawler with suspect defense because he got dropped in a pretty spectacular manner and sort of disregarded the clear improvement Poirier made over time. He's way more technical than lot of people give him credit for and way better defensively sound.
However, I do it is true that Poirier's game hasn't really changed per se. He just refined his weapons very, very well.
I think I see something similar happening with Oliveira. He did also look like he found a way out earlier in his career here and there, and perhaps heart is something that can't be taught, and I haven't really payed a lot of attention to Oliveira to say exactly, but I do know he made a lot of improvements.
I think if Oliveira can avoid getting clipped by Poirier and survive the onslaught early, I think he has a pretty good chance of finishing Poirier. I just think people are making the same mistake of underestimating Oliveira like they did with Poirier, though this fight probably could go either way.
You can see what they were saying about Poirier in this thread.
https://forums.sherdog.com/threads/is-dustin-poirier-the-best-striker-in-the-lw-history.4190204/
I think people sometimes underestimate what hard work with high level training available to fighters right now can do to improve fighters, especially younger fighters, relatively speaking anyways.
People kept thinking Poirier is a wild brawler with suspect defense because he got dropped in a pretty spectacular manner and sort of disregarded the clear improvement Poirier made over time. He's way more technical than lot of people give him credit for and way better defensively sound.
However, I do it is true that Poirier's game hasn't really changed per se. He just refined his weapons very, very well.
I think I see something similar happening with Oliveira. He did also look like he found a way out earlier in his career here and there, and perhaps heart is something that can't be taught, and I haven't really payed a lot of attention to Oliveira to say exactly, but I do know he made a lot of improvements.
I think if Oliveira can avoid getting clipped by Poirier and survive the onslaught early, I think he has a pretty good chance of finishing Poirier. I just think people are making the same mistake of underestimating Oliveira like they did with Poirier, though this fight probably could go either way.