Dustin Poirier: Charles Oliveira should fight Ilia Topuria 'the same way he fought me'
Oliveira (35-10 MMA, 23-10 UFC) takes on Ilia Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) for the vacant lightweight title in Saturday's UFC 317 (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+) main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Poirier (30-9 MMA, 22-8 UFC) was able to drop and hurt Oliveira in their title fight at UFC 269 in December 2021 but was ultimately submitted by a rear-naked choke in Round 3. Oliveira was dropped in his title fights against Poirier, Michael Chandler, and Justin Gaethje before rallying to finish them all.
However, Poirier points out a key difference between Oliveira's prior opponents and Topuria.
"Charles does get hit a lot," Poirier told MMA Junkie. "I got some people sh*tting on me on Twitter for saying I think Ilia is going to beat Charles, but that's just what I think. Charles does take a lot of shots, and Ilia is a guy who – we haven't seen it really, but he's confident in his jiu-jitsu. He's going to follow Charles down.
"When I hurt Charles, and it's rinse and repeat, a lot of guys have hurt Charles, but we try to make him get back up and touch him again. I think Ilia, if he does sit Charles down, he's going to follow him, get into his guard. We've seen Charles when guys go into his guard and play jiu-jitsu with him and aren't afraid of that, he starts breaking a little bit, I think. But we'll see which Charles shows up. It's a fun fight. It's a fun matchup."
Like Topuria, Poirier boasts heavy hands with his boxing. "The Diamond" thinks Oliveira needs to implement a similar strategy in the striking as he did against him.
"I think Charles needs to fight Ilia the same way he fought me," Poirier continued. "He was all the way in, or he was all the way out. He never really fought me at that boxing range. If he was in, it was clinch work, body locks, a lot of energy, but he smothered my boxing. Or he was at kicking range, using those long front kicks. He's a long, rangy guy. He needs to be all the way in or the all the way out. He cannot play the boxing, pocket game. He needs to be clinching. He doesn't need to be exchanging shots in the pocket with a shorter guy who can crack."
While Poirier is picking Topuria to win, he sees a way Oliveira can get the submission.
"I think Ilia does have good takedown defense, and Charles even being big, I was able to stop a lot of his shots against the fence and make him go back to the body lock," Poirier said. "He eventually got underneath me and got around to my back, and jumped on my back like a JanSport.
"So, if he can close the distance and get into that clinch work with Ilia, instead of boxing there or trying to dirty boxing, holding one tie, I think he needs to use that body lock, try to get behind him. If he can close the distance and get a hold of Ilia's body being the longer guy, maybe he can creep around to the back. I mean, Charles could finish anybody if he gets their back."
To hear more from Poirier, check out his complete appearance on "The Bohnfire" podcast with MMA Junkie senior reporter Mike Bohn above.
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