Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor are set to meet for a second time next month in the main event of UFC 257.
McGregor defeated Poirier in their first meeting at UFC 178 and emotion played a role in that first encounter according to Poirier.
“He was obviously a great fighter in finishing a bunch of guys before me in his UFC career, but at this point we’re both so much more established and have so much more experience, just more mature fighters, and I think you get a completely different fight here,” Poirier told MMA Junkie. “I was emotional in the first one. I wanted to hurt the guy. This time I just want to outsmart him, just want to beat him. This is business. This isn’t any ill will towards the guy. When I was younger, I used to fight with a lot of emotion. This isn’t the same thing for me. This isn’t about getting even for me. This isn’t like a revenge type of thing for me. This is about moving my career forward, about putting my family in a better spot. It’s not trying to get back a guy who got me. This is just business.”
Both fighters have gone onto great success since their first encounter, with McGregor becoming the UFC lightweight champion and UFC featherweight champion, while Poirier went onto capture the UFC interim lightweight title.
Poirier says a completely different version of himself will be facing McGregor at UFC 257.
“It’s kind of the same, honestly,” Poirier said. “Going into the Max fight I knew he was a different fighter. I knew I was a different fighter. I couldn’t really draw any momentum from the first fight, and kind of same here with this. This is a completely different fight. We’re both completely different fighters, and I’m not really looking back at that first fight.”
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