Dustin Poirier has been told that simply “can’t lose” to Conor McGregor in their upcoming trilogy fight at UFC 264 in July.
Poirier defeated McGregor in their Lightweight rematch at UFC 257 with a second round TKO.
The American has signed a contract for a trilogy, and given McGregor won their first bout, meaning the winner is likely to get a chance to fight for the title.
And Lightweight title contender Michael Chandler admits that Poirier simply cannot lose if they go to a third fight or he can kiss goodbye to the chance of a title shot.
“Now that they’re both 1-1, now it’s a fight that Dustin can’t lose,” Chandler told MMA Fighting.
“He knows he passed up on the title shot in order to take this fight.
“So there’s going to be a ton of pressure on Dustin to win this fight or else he passed up on a title shot that he might not get for a while.
“Taking another fight or two to get back to the title and it could be me and Conor fighting next, if Conor wins.”
McGregor had been odds-on favourite to beat Poirier in the rematch, but even in spite of the defeat, Chandler reckons the Notorious still has the upper hand if they head back into the Octagon.
“I still lean towards Conor,” Chandler said. “I think Conor still has the power in those hands and I think you’re going to see Conor make some adjustments as we have seen
“When he has taken losses, he’s always come back a better fighter. A more skilled fighter. A more prepared fighter.
“We’re going to see whenever that fight takes place. Either way, I’m excited to watch that one.”
Chandler will face Charles Oliveira at UFC 262 next month for the vacant Lightweight title after the retired Khabib Nurmagomedov gave up the belt.
And the American admits that he wasn't expecting to be in that position, but admits it makes sense now.
“I definitely saw it coming that Conor and Poirier are going to do the trilogy," he added.
“It makes sense for Dustin. It makes sense for Conor to get that one back. It makes sense, it’s a huge fight in the lightweight division. It makes sense in a lot of ways for Dustin to forgo the title shot and fight Conor.
“But with that being said, the UFC’s got to move on. The UFC met with Khabib and Khabib said he was absolutely, unequivocally retired. He’s done.
“So the UFC had to make a decision. I don’t know what phone calls were being made, I don’t know if there were phone calls made to Dustin, made to [Justin] Gaethje, made to Oliveira, made to whoever.
“All I know is I got a phone call asking if I would be down to fight for the vacant title May 15 and I said absolutely. I didn’t care who it was against. That’s kind of how it played out.”
