Coach believes Dustin Poirier needs to expose Conor McGregor’s “weakness” at UFC 257

American Top Team’s Mike Brown wants to see Dustin Poirier exploit Conor McGregor’s conditioning “weakness” at UFC 257 this weekend.

Brown, who is Poirier’s head coach at ATT, will be hoping to guide “The Diamond” to victory more than six years after he was brutally defeated by McGregor at UFC 178 in Las Vegas.

During an interview with MMA Junkie, Brown made it crystal clear that there is one particular part of Conor’s game that they’ll be hoping to take advantage of.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMFBEiAJaKc

“It’s a rematch of a blemish – he doesn’t have many of them – that he’d like to erase,” Brown said, previewing the Poirier vs. McGregor rematch. “(McGregor) always comes with something new and something fresh and something different. Honestly, we see some technical holes in the game. But most importantly, we see a lot of what everybody sees: He definitely has a weakness in conditioning. That’s something we’d be smart to exploit if possible.

“(Poirier is) a guy that’s great conditioning, a volume puncher with big power in both hands and both legs, and it doesn’t go away. He can knock you out with either hand or either leg in Round 1 or Round 5, and it doesn’t go away. That’s what makes him the world-class monster that he is.”

In line with that way of thinking, Poirier himself believes that he has the advantage if the fight goes long.

“When we’re dry early, he has all the pop and the spring still in his step,” Poirier told MMA Junkie ahead of the fight. “(He’s) very dangerous. Good thing it’s a 25-minute fight, and I feel like I’ve matured and developed my skills enough to be in the right moments and take the right chances and not put myself in harm’s way right off the bat.

“I feel like the better fighter wins in the longer fights,” Poirier added. “Anybody can get hurt early or submitted early in a fight. The more a fight blossoms and unfolds, the better fighter usually rises up and I just want to show that I’m the better fighter. … Those later rounds, I get going. I’m sure Conor’s made adjustments. He has slowed down in the later rounds, but I think the longer this fight goes, the better it plays out for me.”

Do you think this strategy from Mike Brown will be enough to carry Dustin Poirier to victory?