Conor McGregor thinks Dustin Poirier will knockout champion Islam Makhachev in their upcoming UFC 302 lightweight title clash. Defending his 155-pound title for the first time since becoming champion two years ago, Makhachev is the huge favorite going into the bout. And Islam Makhachev, too, is supremely confident of victory, as he has promised to exploit the New Orleans native’s weakness—his grappling—to ultimately emerge victorious.

However, McGregor thinks that Poirier, who has defeated ‘Notorious’ twice in their three fights, will emerge victorious due to his excellent striking and southpaw stance, which Makhachev found difficult before getting knocked out by Adriano Martins in his second UFC fight back in 2015.

This, of course, remains the only loss on the champ’s record. And ‘Mystic Mac’ has predicted that ‘Diamond’ will present a similar challenge and will be able to defeat the Dagestani. “He’s [Makhachev’s] been knocked out by a back check hook from a southpaw before,” McGregor said in a recent interview.

McGregor, of course, is preparing to return to the octagon at UFC 303 against Michael Chandler on June 29. This will mark the return of the UFC’s Prodigal Son after three years of inactivity following a horrific injury, consecutive losses, advancing age, and a general downward trend in his career. And because of these reasons, he is in no position to challenge Makhachev for the title, even if he defeats Chandler at UFC 303. However, Makhachev is willing to fight the Irishman despite all of this because of one very important reason- money.

Islam Makhachev open to fight Conor McGregor despite latter’s decline

On a recent appearance on former champions Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo‘s ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast on YouTube, Cejudo asked the lightweight champion if he would be game to fight Conor McGregor after Poirier.

To which, the Dagestani answered in the affirmative, going as far as to say that “People have to be stupid to say no,” presumably because of the massive paydays (or red-panty nights as McGregor once eloquently put it) that result from fighting MMA’s biggest star ever.

However, the Russian national, while trying not to badmouth the Irishman, did point out that he was not the same fighter he once was. The reigning lightweight champion felt that while the former champion had been an elite fighter back before he fought Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, he was no longer the same fighter because of the lifestyle choices he had made in the interim.

“Brother, easy. This guy [is] not same. I don’t want to make him feel or look bad, but everybody knows this guy [is] not same. Before, yeah, for sure. When he was fighting with Khabib [Nurmagomedov], he [was] in the good shape. He [was] a high-level fighter, but right now, too much alcohol, too much whiskey and it’s not same,” he said.

And while the bombastic Dubliner may have fallen a long way from his halcyon days early to mid-2010s, which saw him become UFC’s first two-division champion, he still is the biggest MMA star in the world. And a fight with him, no matter how uncompetitive (or even what the result is) is still a very big deal, as Makhachev’s comments prove.