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Poirier didn't look his best in his fight against Dan Hooker. He was returning from a layoff due to hip surgery, which he got in October 2019.That's an incredible leap of logic based on precious little, and while I'm not surprised to see it from other posters, I'm surprised you're buying into this narrative.
What evidence is there that Dustin is "slowing down" in any manner? He's 31 years old and I haven't seen any drop in performance recently. In fact, 3 fights and 1.5 years ago, his win over Holloway was the finest of his entire career.
Now, after a loss to Khabib where he took very little damage and that amazing fight against Hooker, who looked INSANELY good for the first 2 rounds, he's past his prime? So from the absolute pinnacle of his career to noticeably past his prime in 1.5 years, all at the ripe old age of 31? Yeah, I'm not buying it.
I don't even think Poirier has taken as much damage as people think.
In the past 3 years, he has only fought 5 times. 3 of those featured little to moderate damage (Alvarez, Holloway, Khabib) and 2 were brutal wars that he nevertheless won (Gaethje, Hooker). That's simply not the degree of damage where we start talking about a guy being badly affected by them.
Recall the same narrative about Gaethje after he lost to Poirier and was about to face Vick and was even money, who had sustained more cumulative damage.
Poirier over Hooker was my second largest bet of 2020, and while I thought it was a close fight, I thought Poirier might've lost (1 of the rounds was close, and I assumed the judges would side with Hooker). I was surprised and happy af when Poirier got the decision win.
Poirier has improved since his first fight against Conor, which was at 145 pounds. That being said, even though he has improved, he still gets hit a lot, which will leave plenty of chances for Conor (a superior counter striker) to land on him.
If I were to give Poirier a piece of advice, I would recommend the use of calf kicks against Conor, as it will keep Poirier at a far enough distance not to get owned with a counter, and Conor's striking stance is open to them.