Dustin Poirier has ramped up his preparations for Conor McGregor by grappling with four-time World’s Strongest Man Brian Shaw.
‘The Diamond’ is set to fight McGregor for a third time at UFC 264 after knocking out the Irishman at UFC 257 in January.
Derek Hall (Twitter)
Poirier turned down a lightweight title opportunity in order to pursue a more lucrative bout against ‘The Notorious’ and will know a repeat of his heroics on Fight Island will put him in pole position to challenge for the belt.
Before he can consider facing the winner of Michael Chandler vs Charles Oliveira or his third fight with McGregor, the 32-year-old has decided to draft in a 400lbs sparring partner.
Although McGregor is famed for his punching power, it is unlikely he will be able to pack the same sort of punch Brian Shaw is capable of.
The 6ft 8ins strongman met up with Poirier in Denver, Colorado and quickly realised size is not everything and was soon tapping out after the lightweight locked in a standing rear naked choke.
Derek Hall (Twitter)
Speaking on Shaw’s YouTube channel, the Louisiana-native revealed that, after learning from the defeat to McGregor at UFC 178, he will be working for a solid nine weeks in the build up to July 10 and UFC 264.
“The first time me and Conor fought was 2014, and then we just fought January of this year, so I have some recent footage to break down,” Poirier said.
“Getting ready for the last one, we knew he was going to be completely different than the first time we fought. It was six year later, seven years later. But that’s it. We go down, start breaking footage down, and put everything together to lay out a solid nine week training camp.”