Khabib Nurmagomedov respects Dustin Poirier but hopes Islam Makhachev will finish him at UFC 302

Khabib Nurmagomedov has a plan for Islam Makhachev at when he faces Dustin Poirier.

Next Saturday, Makhachev puts his lightweight title on the line against Poirier in the main event of UFC 302. It’s Makhachev’s third title defense, giving him a chance to tie the lightweight record (currently held by four different champions), and heading into the bout, Nurmagomedo — Makhachev’s friend and coach, and former lightweight champion — believes that have a decided advantage give his own experience against “The Diamond.”

“Many people underestimate Dustin Poirier,” Nurmagomedov said in a YouTube video documenting Makhachev’s training camp. “I personally fought him, spent three rounds and over 10 minutes with him, and I have a good sense of his strengths and weaknesses. We are working hard on these aspects.”

Nurmagomedov fought Poirier back in 2019 at UFC 242, when Poirier was an interim lightweight champion. While Poirier had some moments in the fight, it ultimately was another dominant performance from the greatest lightweight of all time, as he went on to submit Poirier in the third round. But Khabib hopes Makhachev will be able to improve on his past performance against Poirier when they fight.

“Dustin is very experienced; he’s been in many battles already,” Nurmagomedov said. “Yes, he has lost, but he also has many victories in the UFC, more than 22 or 23 wins. Using our slang, he is a seasoned warrior. You can’t take him lightly. We have great respect for Dustin, but on June 1, he is our opponent. We have a clearly developed plan for the fight, and I believe Islam will follow it. I really hope that Islam will finish him off in the second or third round.”

And while Khabib did not elaborate on what their gameplan is, Makhachev wasn’t as secretive. Also speaking during the video, the UFC lightweight champion kept things simple, noting essentially that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” will be the prevailing idea.

“I think this fight will be beneficial for us to review and build a plan together,” Makhachev said when discussing Nurmagomedov’s fight with Poirier. “When Khabib was preparing for him, we trained together, and I was already involved in the discussion of the fight preparation plan against Dustin. I don’t think the preparation and plan for the fight will differ much because we know Dustin’s strengths and weaknesses.”

UFC 302 takes place this Saturday at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.