Like many, Jon Anik was blown away by Dustin Poirier’s latest bout with Michael Chandler.
In the lightweight featured bout of the UFC’s November pay-per-view event at Madison Square Gardenk, Poirier submitted Chandler to cap off one of the craziest fights of the year.
” I don’t know how to talk about Dustin Pourier. All I want is to say that he’s a f*ing gangster. “Durability, focus, boxing fundamentals — gosh, if you’re in an alley, don’t you want f****** guy [with you], bro?”
Despite Poirier’s two defeats in his bid to be the UFC lightweight champion undisputedly, Anik feels that Poirier does not need to complete the mission in order to establish his legacy. This is after his win over Chandler.
“Dustin Poirier is incredible, and I don’t think he needs an undisputed UFC lightweight championship to prove any sort of greatness,” Anik said. This was an difficult matchup in many respects. Michael Chandler’s explosivity is a problem for a lot of people, and maybe if Chandler makes a little bit of a different decision at times in this fight, the narrative flips.
“Dustin’s skill to identify when a fighter is hurt and bite on the mouthpiece. Then, obviously his skill set allows him to submit a man in this setting. Finally, he has the ability after the fact, to inform Michael Chandler that this is his house and the octagon. Huge night for Poirier in proving that his UFC body of work counts for a whole lot, and obviously I have buckets of respect for Chandler in defeat.”
Poirier now has won four out of five fights and rebounded from his loss to Charles Oliveira, then champion at UFC 269 in December. For Chandler, he drops to 2-3 since coming over from Bellator, although “Iron” picked up his fourth post-fight bonus despite the loss to Poirier.
Anik recently signed a four-year contract to stay with UFC. He appreciated the opportunity to have the best seats in the house for fights like that of Poirier against Chandler.
” It’s insane to call a fight such as that. Anik said, “I hope that we did it justice.” “Brian Stann was texting me that maybe we could’ve done that fight more justice with our commentary, but you know, best we could do.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/12/24/23466124/jon-anik-believes-gangster-dustin-poirier-doesnt-need-an-undisputed-ufc-title-to-cement-legacy?rand=96749
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