Benoit Saint-Denis believes he and Dustin Poirier will give each other a tough time at UFC 299.
The Saint-Dennis vs. Poirier match is now official, and the pair will serve as the co-main event complementing the Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera title fight at UFC 299. It will be one of the biggest opportunities “God of War” would get in his UFC career, and the young fighter is appreciative of getting the chance to fight “The Diamond.”
“UFC 300 would have been crazy as well, but fighting the guy that trains out of American Top Team – he’s like a figure of ATT, which is one of the biggest professional gyms in the US, fighting him in the co-main event, hometown for him, it’s crazy,” Saint-Denis said in his interview in a recent episode of The MMA Hour.
Saint-Denis will be coming from a recent win after defeating Matt Frevola via a first-round knockout at UFC 295 last November. Aside from that, the French fighter boasts an impressive 13-1 record. Yet, he knows that the figures and his victories would ensure his bout against Poirier, who lost in his last fight against Justin Gaethje at UFC 291, would be easy.
The match would be in five rounds, with Poirier earlier revealing that it was one of his requests in his deal. According to the 35-year-old, such a long fight would determine a fighter’s true capability in the cage. Saint-Denis has no issue with that but ensured that he would also give the opponent a problem in the octagon when they meet.
“I expect it to be a tough fight, and I’m expecting him to be very excited about all this,” Saint-Denis continued. “Yes, five rounds is good for him; he believes he has the experience. Of course, he has the experience, and of course, he is used to five rounds, but I will show you that with the training methodology we have, you are not going to see me having any cardio issue or energy management in my fight. It’s going to be a tough fight for both of us, but I hope he is not expecting me to be easy.”
