Dustin Poirier's team 'hoping for a different' Conor McGregor in UFC 264 trilogy as Diamond eyes second KO
DUSTIN POIRIER's team are hoping Conor McGregor has learned from his mistakes and adopted a 'different' approach for their trilogy fight.
The Diamond will renew his rivalry with The Notorious early on Sunday morning in the main event of UFC 264 in Las Vegas.
Former interim lightweight champion Poirier, 32, stopped McGregor in the second round of their January rematch in Abu Dhabi, which the UFC's poster boy adopted a boxing-heavy approach for.
But The Diamond's boxing coach Dyah Davis is hoping the Irishman will bring a different set of problems to the table this weekend.
He told SunSport: "I think we're expecting a different Conor and we're hoping for a different Conor.
"I hope that he's gone back and done his homework to realise that, 'I need to strengthen my game, I need to bring a better me coming forward in this next fight.'
"And we're hoping for that. We want a good competitive fight, that's what we're looking for. That, again, brings out the best Dustin Poirier.
"He deals well with adversity.
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"A lot of times if you're in there and you're beating a guy, you can get complacent and you can get caught with something unwillingly just because you feel like you're ahead in the fight.
"Like I said, you can get complacent, you can get complacent with walking away with an easy victory knowing that maybe you can walk out there with a decision and not necessarily have to go for the knockout.
"But he thrives better on a ready and game opponent."
Not a single ounce of complacency has crept in for Poirier, who is expecting to face a 'motivated' McGregor in their Sin City series decider.
And Davis – the son of boxing great Howard Davis Jr – believes McGregor will have his hands full dealing with the constantly improving Diamond.
He said: “Training camp has actually been marvellous, man. This is the best DP.
“I think this is the best version of DP that the audience members will see. Honestly, training camp has been going really good.
“He’s been doing fantastic in sparring, he’s very coachable and he’s receiving things better this fight than he has in the past.
“I’m really looking forward to July 10 and putting his full display of skills on set for everyone.”
He added: “Like I said, as far as the quality of opposition that we’ve had for sparring for him, he’s doing things great defensively that I’ve never seen him do before.
“Offensively, he’s countering, he’s just doing a lot of good stuff.
“And I really just think he’s going to put it together come fight night.
“Not that he hasn’t before, but again, the best version that I’ve seen from him thus far.”
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