'He makes himself look bigger than he is' - Dustin Poirier credits Conor McGregor's ability to 'fight tall'

Dustin Poirier's knockout win over Conor McGregor at UFC 257 gave rise to a lot of theories about the reasons behind the unexpected outcome. In a recent appearance on The Fight with Teddy Atlas, Dustin Poirier discussed various aspects of Conor McGregor's fighting style with Teddy Atlas, crediting the Irishman for his ability to fight tall by controlling the range while making effective use of his long reach.

"You had to do two things. One, you had to understand range because he's long... He has long arms and he knows how to fight tall... Conor knows how to use those long arms and fight tall...," Teddy Atlas said.

"Not only does he know how to use the length that he has and the attributes and athleticism he has to cover distance... he knows how to use the mental part that we just discussed of even making himself look longer and bigger... and every way he stands and we go to the middle of that octagon to do the introduction and face-off, I can tell the way his demeanor in the way he's carrying himself... He's puffing up and he's trying to... you know when he's in front of you and he's got his lead hand out, he's just playing a mind game and making himself look bigger than he is," Dustin Poirier replied.

Conor McGregor is considered to be one of the greatest strikers in the history of MMA and is known for his unorthodox movement, precision striking and high fight IQ. Dustin Poirier's win over Conor McGregor came as a surprise for many fans and experts as the former two-division UFC champion was expected to repeat the outcome of his first meeting with Louisiana native Poirier back in 2014.

Dustin Poirier drilled the leg kicks thousands of times

One of the key aspects of Dustin Poirier's win over Conor McGregor was his ability to exploit McGregor's vulnerability to leg kicks from southpaw opponents. Although Dustin Poirier was the first fighter in the UFC to capitalise on it, UFC pioneer and analyst Bas Rutten had predicted Conor McGregor's fate almost four years back.

When asked by Teddy Atlas about the reasons behind incorporating leg kicks in the game plan, Dustin Poirier gave some interesting insights into his training camp and described the need to restrict McGregor's in-and-out movement and ability to counter punch as the primary reason behind them.

"It came together during the training camp. We started exploring it and working it in sparring rounds and then in drill sessions we would just rep it... we would do it just thousands of times... We knew that taking away one of his wheels on a guy like Conor who uses that in and out movement to disrupt your timing to counter punch... He's one of the best counter punchers that mixed martial arts has ever seen. We knew that would compromise the movements he likes to do... those in and out movements," Dustin Poirier told

In excitement to breakdown @DustinPoirier’s great performance & upset win, I failed to cover his brilliant decision to eliminate the legs of perhaps UFC’s greatest striker. No legs, no more greatest striker. Covered all else.😏Hail the conqueror👑🦵👊👏 https://t.co/Ys7peEm4Me pic.twitter.com/ApxNH20KMH

— Teddy Atlas (@TeddyAtlasReal) January 27, 2021

Dustin Poirier's fighting plans for the rest of 2021 are not clear but the No.1 ranked fighter has a lot of options ahead of him, including a trilogy fight with Conor McGregor.