Conor McGregor has been advised to change up his style if he is to beat Dustin Poirier in their trilogy fight next month.
McGregor adopted a boxing stance for his rematch with Poirier earlier this year and was stopped in the second round.
And now welterweight contender Stephen Thompson, who is renowned for his karate striking background, believes McGregor must return to a wide, fluid stance if he wants to earn a lightweight title shot.
“I think the person that has to do more changing of the fighters is definitely Conor," Thompson told Submission Radio ahead of the July 10 fight.
"I mean, Dustin Poirier has been fighting pretty much the same way for the longest time.
"He’s got great boxing, good timing, [he's] tough as nails, he likes to sit in the pocket, and he’s intelligent; I think McGregor kind of lost something in his last fight.
"I think it was all the boxing that he was doing- he doesn’t have that movement anymore that you normally saw.
"When he fought Jose Aldo, it was the movement that won him that fight, and he was kind of standing there in front of Dustin Poirier, and he took a lot of low calf kicks, and that’s what settled it, sealed the deal.
"So, he’s got to get back into moving like a karate guy."
Thompson, a two-time UFC welterweight title contender, has said that the Irishman must be willing to use in-and-out movement to fight on the back foot.
“He’s got to get back into getting on his bike, using that in-and-out movement," Thompson continued. "Switching sides, playing that game if he’s going to go out there and beat him again.
"Because he can draw out Dustin Poirier’s strikes with his movement and him being such a good counter puncher, can counter off of that.
"So out of the two, Conor’s got to get back to that - I don’t know how hard that is and how long he’s been doing the boxing stuff, but he’s got to get out of that and get back to his movement.
"If he can do that, Conor can win.”
UFC 264 will be the first MMA event in Las Vegas with a full capacity crowd since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, and tickets sold out in seconds for the 20,000 seat T-Mobile Arena.
It is the third meeting between McGregor and Poirier, with each man holding a win over the other.
Poirier knocked out McGregor in their rematch this January at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, while McGregor got the stoppage win in their first fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in 2014.
