Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje 2 is the fight for the symbolic “BMF” title. It’s headlining the UFC 291 event, which is taking place at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday, July 29
Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje are two former interim UFC Lightweight interim champions, who’ve already met once in the Octagon. The first Poirier vs. Gaethje fight took place in 2018 and “The Diamond” won by TKO in round 4.
The betting odds suggest he’s gonna beat “The Highlight” once again, but Gaethje looks determined to prove everyone wrong.
Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje Odds
Moneyline Odds
Dustin Poirier -144
Justin Gaethje +124
*Odds taken from Sports Odds Direct on Thursday, July 27, 2023.
When, Where, and How to Watch?
Place: Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah
Date: Saturday, July 29
Time: 10:00 p.m. ET
How to Watch: PPV
Dustin Poirier is 29-7 overall (with one no contest), and has a 21-6 record in the UFC, which is the promotion he joined in 2011. Still, it took him some time to reach UFC stardom. “The Diamond” has fought for the title several times, but all of those fights happened within the last couple of years.
First, he won the interim lightweight title against Max Holloway in April 2019. He got a shot at the proper title a few months later, but Khabib Nurmagomedov beat him by submission. Fast-forward to 2021, and he fought for the title once again. This time, he lost to Charles Oliveira, once again by submission.
Those two losses remain his only defeats since 2016. And after losing to Oliveira, he got back on the winning track by beating Michael Chandler by submission, showing that grappling/wrestling isn’t his Achilles heel. And even if it were, that wouldn’t worry him much ahead of the Gaethje fight. The thing is that his opponent is all about striking.
Justin Gaethje is 24-4 with two KO/TKO losses and two losses by submission. The latter happened to Charles Oliveira and Khabib Nurmagomedov in championship fights. When it comes to his knockout losses, Eddie Alvarez beat him in December 2017, and Poirier do the same a few months later.
However, since then, “The Diamond” has upped his striking (and strike-dodging) game. Sure, the average number of significant strikes he absorbs is still very high (7.66) but in two of his last four fights, we saw him get hit no more than 30 times in total.
In his most recent fight, he fought the striking maestro Rafael Fiziev, who was favored to win the fight. However, after three rounds of brutal boxing, Gaethje came out on top, winning by a majority decision.
