Dustin Poirier believes Charles Oliveira needs to fight Ilia Topuria just like he fought him in 2021.
Oliveira faces Topuria for the vacant lightweight title in the main event of UFC 317 on Saturday night, which concludes Dana White‘s annual International Fight Week.
Oliveira can become a two-time lightweight champion at UFC 317Getty‘Do Bronxs’ is a former lightweight champion, having defeated Michael Chandler at UFC 262 in May 2021 to win the belt.
Seven months later, the 35-year-old from Brazil fought and defended the belt against Poirier, submitting ‘The Diamond’ in the third round of their main event bout at UFC 269.
Poirier is currently in his own training camp for a retirement bout with Max Holloway on July 19, but that didn’t stop him from providing some advice to his former foe.
“I think Charles needs to fight Ilia the same way he fought me,” Poirier told MMA Junkie, predicting the outcome of UFC 317’s main event in Las Vegas.
“He was all the way in, or he was all the way out. He never really fought me at that boxing range.
“If he was in, it was clinch work, body locks, a lot of energy, but he smothered my boxing.
“Or he was at kicking range, using those long front kicks. He’s a long range guy.
“He needs to be all the way in or all the way out. He cannot play the boxing pocket game.
“He needs to be clinching. He doesn’t need to be exchanging shots in the pocket with a shorter guy who can crack.”
Topuria goes into the main event bout as a huge favourite in the eyes of the bookmakers and several MMA fans, including talkSPORT staff, with a majority predicting a huge KO for the Georgian-born Spanish fighter.
Oliveira submitted Poirier four years ago at UFC 269GETTY That was the last time he held gold in White’s promotionGettyPoirier believes the outcome of the event will depend on what version we see of ‘Do Bronxs’ in Las Vegas.
“Charles does take a lot of shots, and Ilia is a guy who’s confident in his jiu-jitsu,” Poirier added.
“He’s going to follow Charles down. When I hurt Charles — and it’s rinse and repeat — a lot of guys have hurt Charles, but we didn’t follow.
“We tried to make him get back up and touch him again.
“I think Ilia — if he does sit Charles down — he’s gonna follow him up, get into his guard.
“And we’ve seen Charles, when guys go into his guard and play jiu-jitsu with him and aren’t afraid of that, he starts breaking a little bit.
Poirier said Oliveira can’t ‘play the boxing pocket game’ against TopuriaGettyView Tweet: twitter.com/hashtag/UFC317?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
“We’ll see what Charles shows up. It’s a fun fight, it’s a fun matchup.”
Ex-featherweight champion Topuria is moving up a weight class to fight Oliveira due to his struggles with making 145 lbs in previous bouts.
However, it has been the Brazilian who is seemingly struggling to shred pounds ahead of the huge clash at UFC 317.
Oliveira’s gruelling weight cut prompted concern for his health this week following a worrying video uploaded to social media on Thursday.
He can be seen boiling himself down to the lightweight limit, wrapped up and surrounded by a team that includes top welterweight contender Ian Machado Garry.
One fan wrote: “Is he dying or cutting weight?”
Oliveira is hoping to secure his status as a two-time lightweight champion at UFC 317 on Saturday night.
Topuria, meanwhile, can become one of few two-division champions to have graced Dana White’s promotion, having gone eight bouts unbeaten since his UFC debut in October 2020.
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