Dustin Poirier vs Justin Gaethje II to headline UFC 291 in Salt Lake City
UFC 291 headlined by Dustin Poirier vs Justin Gaethje 2
The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to Salt Lake City, Utah on July 29, 2023, and this is one you don’t want to miss!
The headliner for this UFC 291 event comes in the lightweight division between former interim champions Dustin Poirier (29-7) and Justin Gaethje (24-4), a rematch of their 2018 encounter that saw Poirier the victor via TKO in round four.
That fight was an absolute war; Gaethje had Poirier’s lead leg dead within the first 90 seconds of the encounter due to his thunderous leg kicks, and after three rounds of that were complete, Poirier mustered up the power to stop Gaethje early on in the fourth round, handing him just the second defeat of his then 20-fight career.
Many of us have been awaiting the rematch ever since, and now we finally get it just over five years later at UFC 291.
It’s rare that the UFC will put on a pay-per-view event without a title fight headlining, but, apparently since Jorge Masvidal retired last month at UFC 287, the UFC is bringing back the BMF title, and Poirier and Gaethje will be fighting for it over the course of a scheduled five rounds.
Both of these men have ironically gone 6-2 since facing one another. Both are coming into the bout on one win following defeat in title fights, and each of their two defeats since facing one another come to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliviera in title fights.
Those are some stunning parallels.
Poirier’s most recent win comes over no. 5 ranked Michael Chandler (each have defeated Chandler), while Gaethje’s comes over no. 6 ranked Rafael Fiziev.
Who do you see coming out on top in this epic lightweight rematch going down at UFC 291?
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