Michael Chandler thinks Dustin Poirier should wait for Conor McGregor to return instead of waiting for a title shot.
At UFC 264, Poirier and McGregor had their highly-anticipated trilogy and Poirier won due to the Irishman breaking his leg at the first round. After the fight, both men hinted at doing the fourth fight and Chandler believes Poirier should pass up the title shot and wait for the Irishman.
“Man, if I’m Dustin Poirier, I’m just waiting for Conor 4,” Chandler said in an interview with Helen Yee (via MMAJunkie). “If Poirier goes and wins the title, can Conor come right back and fight Poirier if he has the title? Crazier things have happened. So if I’m Poirier, I’m just waiting out and waiting for Conor 4, especially after he said numerous things about my wife and my kids and killing me, all that kind of stuff.
“But I also know and this is a testament to Poirier as a competitor, he wants to win the ultimate prize in mixed martial arts,” Chandler continued. “He’s been an interim champion, but he hasn’t full-fledged, 100 percent undisputed champion. So I think the competitor in him will go fight Charles Oliveira, but there’s an inkling, there’s a part of me that says (he) might as well wait out and get the big money fight in Conor.”
Although Chandler thinks Poirier should wait for McGregor due to the money, he knows it’s unlikely “The Diamond” will do it. Poirier will likely fight Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title later this year.
If Poirier does fight Oliveira, Chandler believes it will be the American winning.
“I think they’re both well-rounded,” Chandler said. “I think Poirier’s got a little bit more of kind of that dog in him. When the fight gets in the thick of it – obviously Charles Oliveira beat me in the second round, very soon into the second round, so we didn’t really see a lot of longevity in a fight like that.
“We saw him go through rounds with Tony Ferguson, but that was muchly a one-sided affair. I think a fight with Dustin Poirier, he puts hands on him pretty solidly those first couple rounds and kinda starts to put it on Charles. I think Poirier wins that fight by third, fourth-round finish. If they do go all five, Poirier wins the decision,” Chandler concluded.
