Dustin Poirier Not Sure What to Expect from Recently Defeated Justin Gaethje

Dustin Poirier has been on a tear since moving up to the lightweight division. Some professional fighters put themselves through hell during their weight cut, so that come fight night they aren’t at a disadvantage from a size perspective.

Since USADA banned the use of IV for rehydration in 2015, more fighters have decided to move up a weight division where they have more energy, durability and power.

“The Diamond” was fighting at featherweight and ran into Conor McGregor back in 2014. That night, Poirier was decimated by the Irishman and decided that a move up to lightweight was best as the weight cut was taking its toll. At 155 pounds, he’s lost one bout in eight fights, with notable wins over Anthony Pettis, Jim Miller and Yancy Medeiros. His only loss was to Michael Johnson back in 2016.

Poirier, who is the No. 5-ranked lightweight, will take on the No. 6 lightweight Justin Gaethje. The fight takes place on April 14 at UFC Fon Fox 29 inside the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona. This will be the first fight in 2018 for both men.

Gaethje is coming off his first professional mixed martial arts loss to former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez last December, after getting knocked out in the third round. The former World Series of Fighting lightweight champion came into the fight with Alvarez riding an 18 fight winning streak.

Poirier recently talked to MMAJunkie.com in relation to his opponent and what he expects Gaethje to bring after suffering his first loss:

“We don’t know how he’s going to react after his first loss. When he’s knocking everybody out and making everybody quit and beating everybody up, he’s the same guy every fight. He comes in and is brawling and being crazy and taking big risks and leaving it all out there. We’ll see what happens. We do know he has great wrestling and after his first loss he could be changing his mind about his fighting style. He could be maturing and thinking, ‘I won’t be doing this long if I keep fighting like this.’ But we’re preparing for anything.”