Georges St-Pierre picks Conor McGregor to score second round knockout over Dustin Poirier

Former two-weight UFC champion, Georges St-Pierre has predicted that his fellow former duel-weight gold holder, Conor McGregor will right the wrongs from his January re-run against former interim titleholder, Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 next weekend — picking the Dubliner to score a second round knockout win over the latter.

Headlining UFC 264 in the organization’s return to a live gate in Las Vegas, Nevada for the first time since March of last year at UFC 248, Poirier and McGregor take main event billing, with the event scheduled to take place at a sold-out T-Mobile Arena in ‘Sin City’.

In January of this year, Poirier headlined a ‘Fight Island’ pay-per-view event against McGregor — handing the Crumlin native his first knockout loss in professional mixed martial arts in the form of a second round defeat. The matchup came as a re-run of the pair’s featherweight showdown back in September of 2014 — where McGregor stopped Poirier with first round strikes.

Appearing alongside coach, Firas Zahabi at Tristar MMA recently, former welterweight and middleweight champion, St-Pierre gave his thoughts on the upcoming rubber match between McGregor and Poirier, claiming that the Dubliner will eventually stop American Top Team staple, Poirier in the second round with strikes.

“I think (Conor) McGregor is very good in rematches, and I think he’s going to have the victory,” St-Pierre said when asked for his prediction by Zahabi. “I think he’s probably going to win in the second round. A knockout.“

St-Pierre’s theory that McGregor has risen to the occasion in rematches comes off the back of his UFC 202 victory over Nate Diaz, where he scored a unanimous decision win over the Stockton veteran — following a second round rear-naked choke loss to the Californian in March of 2016. McGregor’s only other rematch came against Poirier; his January knockout loss.

Whilst the former undisputed featherweight and lightweight best has the backing of St-Pierre, Poirier has backed himself to stop the Dubliner once more on July 10th. — claiming that the striker can have all the money in the world, but cannot buy heart.”July 10, I’m going to stop Conor McGregor again,” Poirier said. “You can have all the money in the world but you can’t but heart and I got that.“

Ross Markey

Senior writer for FightBook MMA. An aspiring mixed martial arts reporter based in Ireland. Producer of news articles, interviews, opinion features, and exclusive features such as, ‘The Fallout’, ‘The Breakdown, and, ‘This Week In MMA’.