Khabib Nurmagomedov expects Dustin Poirier to be a tougher challenge than Conor McGregor .
The lightweight champion will make the second defence of his belt against Poirier at UFC 242 on Saturday.
It is the Russian's first fight since he beat McGregor by a fourth-round submission last October - and he expects Poirier to be his toughest test to date.
Nurmagomedov said: "Right now, when I watch Dustin Poirier I think it’s going to be my toughest challenge.
"I always think like this. Even when I fight with Darrell Horcher, I think okay this guy is my toughest challenge. I don’t want to make a mistake; I don’t want to underestimate this guy. I think a lot of people underestimate his ground game.
"I think he has good ground game, Dustin. He has good grappling, he has a good old school style. But he’s not bad on the ground, he’s not bad on feet, his kicking, his kneeing, his punching, his footwork, he’s very good fighter. I think it’s going to be very tough fight for me.
"I’m ready for this, like almost 100 days - last 100 days I trained so hard for this fight. Now only one week before the fight and I’m still focused.
"We’re almost there, the fight is around the corner and I’m very focused on Dustin Poirier, I’m not underestimating this guy."
Poirier earned his shot at the champion by beating Max Holloway - and Nurmagomedov is aware of his threat.
He added: "You know, he has a very good win streak, he beat a lot of good guys. He beat – like last fight he beat a very tough opponent, Max Holloway and I think he deserved this.
"And what makes him tough opponent? I think his experience. I think he has good experience.
"Even if he lose a couple times in UFC, he has good experience here, like 20 or more than 25 in UFC. And he fight – he had very big fights before, he fight with tough opponents and I think it’s about the experience."
