Gaethje vs. Poirier

This is the official discussion thread for Gaethje vs. Poirier. Let's see what you've got.

Nice, nice fight. Gaethje getting no easy road in the UFC.

The fight itself should be very entertaining, but why did UFC match Poirier against Gaethje and not Alvarez?

Wow, that's ridiculous if Alvarez is fighting closer to the title than Poirier is.

Poirier was beating Alvarez until the latter threw an illegal knee, stopping the fight and ruling it a 'no contest'.

Poirier called for a rematch, but Alvarez ducked him. I don't want to see someone being rewarded for throwing an illegal knee, and ducking his opponent afterwards.

* Edited at 01.20.2018, 2:43 AM ET *

I actually see Alvarez fighting Kevin Lee next. He doesn’t want ferguson or khabib imo. The division is in a weird place. The only other fighters up there is barbosa so I would like porrier to fight barbosa next since Eddie won’t fight porrier and barbosa is a training partner

* Edited at 01.20.2018, 2:50 AM ET *

I don't know why Alvarez wouldn't want to fight Ferguson or Khabib to be honest.

The guy is not afraid to get hurt, as exemplified in his gritty victory against Gaethje.

He is, however, incredibly afraid of a career setback. That's why he doesn't want to rematch Poirier, but called out Tony Ferguson on Twitter, hoping he will be matched against him, even though Tony Ferguson seems more dangerous than Poirier.

Tony is ranked higher than Poirier, so Alvarez would have less to lose against Ferguson, than against Poirier.

However, a fighter should not be able to pick his opponents. That's unfair for fighters who are working their way to the top.

* Edited at 01.20.2018, 3:26 AM ET *

I hate to break it to you, but Eddie was never close to finishing Poirier.

You're probably referring to this segment. 

https://gfycat.com/EnergeticTautHornedtoad

Here, you see Poirier blocking and evading majority of Alvarez's punches.

Mikey,

I agree that Dustin Poirier is not a championship material, but that was not what I was arguing.

I am saying that Alvarez needs to rematch Dustin Poirier before getting a shot at either Tony or Khabib, especially considering how their first match ended in a very controversial note.

Dustin Poirier was out-striking Eddie Alvarez for the entire fight. To Eddie's credit, he did recover and threw flurries of punches that many people thought hurt Poirier. But as shown in the above link I posted, if you count the number of Alvarez's shots that missed Poirier's head during that exact sequence, you would realize that Poirier was not even close to getting finished. To say otherwise is to completely ignore evidence that is in front of you.

Then, approximately 50 seconds after that sequence, Eddie takes Poirier down. And as Poirier tries to stand back up, Eddie Alvarez illegally knees Poirier not once but THREE times. Those illegal knees of Alvarez were enough to compromise Dustin Poirier.

For you to state it only took one knee for Dustin to 'quit' is wrong.

* Edited at 01.20.2018, 6:47 AM ET *

How is Poirier not championship material? He beat the current FW champ. He beat the former LW champ and had a close fight with another former LW champ.

Cuz Poirier still have few people ahead of him in the rankings.

Also, his victory over Max Holloway doesn't necessarily imply that he's a championship material at lightweight.

First of all, that was a featherweight bout, a completely different weight class.

Second, that fight was six years ago. Max has significantly improved since then.

* Edited at 01.20.2018, 9:17 AM ET *

would love to see a return to glory for gaethje, but i'll go against that heart pick and say that dustin can effectively counter the big shots.

This could be an absolute slug fest of a match im really looking forward to it. 
Gaethje with his constant pressure and ability to absorb a hit and the diamond is a threat in many ways.
Its tough to predict but i feel like Gaethje might snap the chin of the diamond.... Still its weird that its not Eddie v The Diamond I feel like that fight needs another go around.
Hopefully this fight is as good as i expect it to be

But i cant wait to see The Style Bender this weekend huge fan that kid has insane potential 

( whistle whistle.  derpi derp derpa derp derp whistle) nothing to see here folks... come on this way this way movin along now thats it

I'm a little concerned for Gaethje's chin now that Eddie's rung his bell; otherwise, I'm confident Gaethje wins the long game with leg kicks and hopefully a little defense.

Gaethje is coming back way too soon after a FOTY. And from him and his team have been saying there doesn't seem to be much of a change in approach. They are under the impression that they put on a great performance against Alvarez and that up until the knee it was anyone's fight when the reality is Eddie was clearly up 2 rounds and on his way to a 30-27 win. Poirier only struggles against fighters with fast hands like MJ and Conor. Justin is not even close to as fast as those guys nor as clean. And I don't even think they faced the same Michael Johnson, Poirier fought a hungry Michael Johnson who had his back against the wall coming off a losing streak. When looking at Johnson's record his best performances always happen when he's the dog and never as the favorite. He holds a 6-2 record as an underdog and 2-7 as a favorite what this shows is he always comes in ****y and underdog when he's the favorite and that is how he came into the Justin fight. Another thing to consider is he took that awful Khabib mauling his fight before. So he was already damaged goods ,this is a reason I think Kevin Lee has a better shot than people think next week. He's facing a victim of a vicious mauling. I see a Poirier TKO here. He is known for stopping fighters with great chins and durability like Yancy Meideros and Bobby Green two of the most durable guys in the game.