Dustin Poirier says Justin Gaethje’s best chance against Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250 is to force chaos rather than trying to match the champion’s technical precision.
Gaethje holds the interim UFC Lightweight Championship and faces Topuria in a unification bout on June 14 at the White House. Poirier, who has fought both men, told UFC on Paramount+ that the stylistic matchup favors Topuria if the fight stays clean.
“It’s not that I’m rooting against him or anything, I just think it’s a tough stylistic matchup for him. If he’s loose with the big punches he throws, Ilia is so tight, combinations are short and clean. Gaethje just has to clean it up a little bit and like I said in the past, Gaethje has said this leading up to fights, ‘I have to be perfect.’ This fight he has to be perfect because Topuria is so dangerous.”
Poirier identified Gaethje’s leg kicks as a key weapon but warned they need to be set up properly.
“He tore my legs up. He tore Chandler’s. He’s done it to a lot of people. Everything he throws is 100 percent. He can knock him out if he can get Ilia to brawl. But he has to set up those leg kicks. He can’t throw them dry, like empty leg kicks like that. He has to throw punches and finish combinations with leg kicks. Ilia’s too sharp to just throw single legs. He’s going to get counterpunched.”
Poirier concluded that Gaethje needs disorder to land his shot.
“There’s not enough time technically for him to sharpen up and outbox, outpoint Ilia on the feet. He needs it to be chaos, he needs it to be a brawl, and he needs to land that shot. I don’t know if he wins, but that’s his best chance.”