John Kavanagh shares his vision of how Conor McGregor vs Dustin Poirier 2 will unfold

John Kavanagh believes that Conor McGregor’s upcoming fight against Dustin Poirier will unfold in the same way as The Notorious One's bout against Eddie Alvarez.

At UFC 205 in November 2016, then-UFC Featherweight Champion Conor McGregor moved up to Lightweight to face then 155 lbs titleholder, Eddie Alvarez. The Notorious One dominated the fight, defeating Alvarez via second-round TKO and becoming the first fighter to hold two UFC titles simultaneously.

Speaking to BT Sport, Conor McGregor’s longtime head coach John Kavanagh was asked how he sees the Irish fighter’s UFC 257 matchup against Dustin Poirier playing out. Kavanagh stated –

“Well, to mention the fight you thought is your favorite fight (Conor McGregor vs. Eddie Alvarez), I think that’s a bit of a preview to what we’re going to see. I can see it being similar. I think there’s a number of guys right now in that weight class (lightweight) – whether it’s Eddie, Dustin (Poirier), Tony (Ferguson), (Dan) Hooker – all of those guys to me are, if you had them in a tournament, depending on which day it fell, a different guy would win.”

“I feel they’re all at a very similar ability level. When they face each other, they have these wars. And then Conor faced one of them, in Eddie, and it looked, you know…I love Eddie, great fighter, great warrior – but he looked like he hadn’t really trained. It was so one-sided. And I have a feeling this one’s not gonna look very different than that.” (*H/T Sportskeeda for the transcription)

🏆🏆It's four years since Conor McGregor became the double champ at UFC 205.Will we see @TheNotoriousMMA lifting the lightweight belt again?pic.twitter.com/tPZAwOc7CY

— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) November 12, 2020

One of the biggest talking points coming out of Conor McGregor’s win over Eddie Alvarez was the fact that The Notorious One put on one of the most one-sided contests in MMA history. Especially, in the striking department.

Additionally, McGregor did that against a widely revered fighter like The Underground King nonetheless. John Kavanagh believes that the Poirier fight would play out similarly to the Alvarez matchup.

Dustin Poirier has improved in leaps and bounds since his first fight against Conor McGregor

Conor McGregor (left); Dustin Poirier (right)

Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier’s first fight transpired in September 2014 and was contested at Featherweight. It ended with McGregor emerging victorious via first-round TKO.

McGregor is now set to face Poirier in a Lightweight bout at UFC 257. It’d be safe to say that both fighters are vastly improved versions of themselves heading into UFC 257.

An essential factor in this equation is that Poirier’s striking defense has evolved to become truly elite in recent years. Considering that, the vast majority of MMA fans and experts believe that Conor McGregor surely has his work cut out for him at UFC 257.

Rewind the clocks ⏳⏮ Look back on @DustinPoirier vs @TheNotoriousMMA from #UFC178 now. #UFC257 pic.twitter.com/fgl3FuQ60l

— UFC (@ufc) November 23, 2020