So it was a common consensus among pros and sherdoggers alike, early it's Conor, late it's Poirier.
I was kinda thinking about the trilogy fight, and just suddenly wondered about this, which I always thought as a given that Conor could. First off, immediate rematch, especially after getting ktfo, greatly favors Poirier.
Most of times in the history of MMA, the guy who won the second fight goes onto win the third, even if they didn't get violently finished. Not only did he get his lights put out, he's not taking much time to regroup and he prob doesn't have a whole lot of time to make adjustments either. He's still in Dubai vacationing, so it's not like he's in a hurry to make those adjustments, it looks like.
The facts are that Conor hasn't finished ANYBODY last five and half years. Poirier got finished by Conor at FW but that was long time ago and it looks like Poirier is a bigger, thicker man at LW than Conor so he appear to have a size advantage as well.
What also seems problematic is that it wasn't that Conor didn't land on Poirier, because he did, but it seemed to have no effect on Poirier at all. It didn't seem to even hurt him even a tiny bit and it landed flush more than once.
It's also worth noting Conor is a type who relied on his speed and timing. If there's first thing that goes for a fighter as they age, it's just that. Conor would turn 33 a week after the fight. It's not necessarily old for MMA fighter, but not the best for a striker who relies on speed, timing and reaction, which Conor is.
Lastly, Dustin is already training hard, but Conor is still vacationing with his family in Dubai and not even sure when he will start training. He is busy on Twitter and Instagram calling out Usman and talking shit about Khabib however.
Personally, I'm not counting out the possibility that Conor's just coming to collect paychecks at this point, and I'm not sure if Conor's heart is in the game no more. If it was, I'd imagine he wouldn't be wanting to fight Diego, and not still be hanging out with his family in Dubai.
So the question remains however, can Conor finish Poirier for the first time in five and half years when his flush shots seemed to have no effect on the LW version of Poirier who hasn't been finished to strikes in about five years while possibly not taking this as seriously as he should?