UFC star Kevin Lee believes Conor McGregor will beat Dustin Poirier next weekend, but won't become lightweight champion.
The winner of the UFC 264 main event is expected to fight newly-crowned 155lb champion Charles Oliveira for the belt later this year, but Lee believes that whoever wins won't get past Oliveira.
Lee was once a lightweight title contender, facing Tony Ferguson for the interim belt in 2017 while McGregor was still working on a comeback to the cage following his boxing debut against Floyd Mayweather.
And he believes that the Irishman has what it takes to recreate his first performance against Poirier back in 2014, when he stopped him early.
“I don’t know," Lee told journalist Helen Yee. "I see Conor maybe winning this one.
"I think he will make the adjustments and win it, but regardless, either one of them I don’t think have the complete game to beat somebody like Charles Oliveira.
“With Charles you’ve got to be on your P’s and Q’s the whole time and you’ve got to have the skills behind it.
"I think Dustin has had a lot of fights and he is kind of coming into his own, but I think he is starting to hit a plateau period where he kind of does what he does.
"But there is no new wrinkles added to his game. You have to hit Charles with something new.”
Lee was scheduled to fight undefeated Sean Brady in his return to the cage on the undercard of Saturday's show, but was forced to pull out with an injury.
His last outing was early last year against eventual champion Oliveira, and he had told reporters that he was taking some time away to work on his skillset.
But he was forced out of his comeback fight, with Brady posting on Instagram : “Unfortunately, I will not be fighting Kevin Lee on July 10.
"From my understanding, he has suffered an injury and had to pull out of the fight, my team is hoping to re-book the fight for August.”
“Thank you to all my family friends and fans who support me this is just a speed bump on my journey to being champ.
The bout is now expected to take place on August 7 if the sides can agree to terms.
This brings the fight card down to 13 bouts, with two early prelims, six televised prelims and five main card bouts, including the trilogy fight between McGregor and Poirier.
It wasn't the only fight to be pulled from the card, with Sean O'Malley losing out on a matchup with promotional veteran Louis Smolka on the main card.
However, the UFC were able to put together another fight for highly-touted prospect O'Malley, and he will now face promotional newcomer Kris Moutinho in the opening bout of the pay-per-view card next weekend.
