UFC 168’s Dustin Poirier aims to make previous strong performance look bad vs. Brandao

Although Dustin Poirier lost a round on judges’ scorecards in his most recent performance, he earned what increasingly is a rare nod in his sport: a 10-8 round.

Poirier defeated top-tier featherweight Erik Koch by unanimous decision at UFC 164, and by most accounts, it was a solid victory.

“I felt really good going in,” he told MMAjunkie Radio. “I had a full camp, I was very focused, and I was in shape and ready to fight. That was a fight I had wanted. I wanted to fight a top-10 guy, and I went in there and performed well.”

But the 24-year-old fighter is convinced he can do better.

“My goal is to go out there next weekend and make that performance look like it was bad,” Poirier said. “I want to go out there and outdo myself every time I fight, and I’m working hard on it, man.”

This past year, Poirier (14-3 MMA, 6-2 UFC) moved full-time to Florida’s American Top Team after a few weeklong trips that supplemented his training in his native Lafayette, La.

Working beside him on a daily basis are UFC standouts Gleison Tibau, Cole Miller, Mike Brown and a host of other top fighters who call the gym home.

Poirier’s goal is to work his way back to the top of the 145-pound division after setbacks to Chan Sung Jung and Cub Swanson delayed his dream of winning a title, and at UFC 168, he gets a chance to show off his skills against Diego Brandao (18-8 MMA, 4-1 UFC) on the event’s pay-per-view main-card at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

After suffering a loss against Darren Elkins, Brandao, the winner of “The Ultimate Fighter 14,” is riding a three-fight winning streak. Poirier, however, said it’s not his opponent’s streak that guarantees a good fight, but his approach to the sport.

“He’s very emotional,” Poirier said. “He cares about this a lot, and it shows in his fighting. He might slow down or get frustrated in fights because he cares so much and he’s putting everything to every punch.

“He’s just a really intense guy. I like that, because so am I. This means everything to me. So, two guys like that go out there, something special is going to happen. I don’t know what it is yet, but we’re going to find out.”

Poirier, though, feels like whatever happens, and however frenzied the action, he will be in control of it.

“I feel like I’m better than [Brandao],” he said. “I’m a better kickboxer, a better boxer. My wrestling is better, and I feel like my jiu-jitsu for fighting is better than his. If we were in a jiu-jitsu competition and we both had a gi on, maybe his jiu-jitsu is better there.

“He’s a [bantamweight] veteran, so he’s dangerous. He knows what’s going on. I plan on outclassing him.”

For more on UFC 168, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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