Artem Lobov pulled no punches in offering his opinion of McGregor’s most recent fight against Dustin Poirier. The Russian-born fighter, who trains alongside Conor McGregor at SBG Ireland in Dublin, thinks McGregor failed to view Poirier as a genuine challenge. However, he doubts that his teammate will make the same mistake again. “I see Conor stopping Dustin early in this fight, I see Conor stopping Dustin in the first round.”
In Lobov’s opinion, McGregor was preoccupied with a potential money-making boxing match against Manny Pacquiao, considering his rematch with Poirier as a mere warmup. Seeing any fight in combat sports as a warmup is dangerous, but this is particularly true in the upper echelons of the UFC, where every ranked fighter poses a serious threat to every other ranked fighter.
McGregor’s teammate issues prediction for UFC 264
“It wasn’t like he wasn’t fully focused or anything, he just didn’t give Dustin the respect he deserved,” Lobov told BJPENN.com.
“He was more thinking about boxing Manny after the fight and was getting ready for that as Conor saw that as the challenge, and Dustin was just going to be a warmup fight.
Obviously, it didn’t work out that way. Dustin did his homework and improved a lot.”
Lobov’s analysis of the fight went even deeper: “To be honest with you, if you look at the second fight, it was developing how the first fight went. That is what I expected.
The only thing that made a difference were the leg kicks. It wasn’t like he wasn’t training to defend leg kicks, but those kicks are very unique.
When you spar in training and you wear shin pads you don’t feel those kicks and you lift your leg to check. However, in the fight, that doesn’t work anymore.
Conor is now aware of that and I see the fight going how it already was going and the way the first fight went and I see Conor stopping Dustin early in this fight.
I see Conor stopping Dustin in the first round.”
Should McGregor do as Lobov predicts, he will go on to challenge Charles Oliveira for the Lightweight title. Whether or not a fight against Manny Pacquiao remains on the cards is unclear, but a title fight in MMA wouldn’t hurt McGregor’s pay-per-view pulling power if it goes ahead.
Do you think McGregor can refocus and win the trilogy, or will Dustin Poirier take the win this Saturday? Which of them has the better chance of defeating Charles Oliveira? Let us know in the comments.
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