Justin Gaethje knows if he were to rematch Dustin Poirier, he would be the one getting his hand raised.
Gaethje and Poirier first met back in the main event of a Fight Night card in April of 2018. It was a back-and-forth scrap as both men had each other rocked, but in the end, “The Highlight” seemed to gas out and suffered a fourth-round TKO loss. After the loss, however, Gaethje made some big changes and won four in a row including the interim belt but suffered a submission loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov for the undisputed belt.
With Poirier set to fight Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title on Saturday at UFC 269, and Gaethje coming off the win over Michael Chandler, he is next in line for the belt. The Highlight has said he believes Poirier wins that fight and when they rematch, Gaethje knows he will be the one winning the fight.
“Yeah, I think it would be fantastic to watch, you know,” he said of a rematch with Poirier to SiriusXM. “Once it happens, I’ll be excited to watch it. Every single fight of mine is the same, you know, extremely entertaining. Yeah, the fight with him the first time, he was very good. I played a different game back then. It was, you know, who’s tougher? Who’s stronger? And he outlasted me and landed that shot. The shots he took, I was surprised. And again, that’s why I have so much respect for the heart and will of that guy.”
Gaethje thinks he could prevail in a potential rematch with Poirier
There is no question both Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier are fairly evenly matched and a rematch would be highly-anticipated. There are paths to victory for both men but Gaethje knows his leg kicks and how he fights now will overwhelm Poirier and allow him to become the undisputed UFC lightweight champion sometime in 2022.
