Dustin Poirier wishes his bout with Michael Chandler had five rounds

“I really wanted to do a five-round fight,” Poirier said.

“Especially for me, I like to get a rhythm and a timing, and I feel like the better fighter. Unless something happens early in one of the first couple of rounds, the better fighter usually wins in the distance.”

“He’s a former (Bellator) world champion. He’s one of the best 155-pounders in the world, so he’s a very, very tough opponent,” Poirier said.

“If it’s Fight of the Year, that means it’s back-and-forth. I’d like it to be clean, one-sided if I could paint the perfect picture.

“But I don’t shy away from those fire fights. I’m going to try my best to stay calm under fire and technical, but if he competes to the best of his ability, and I do the same, it could be Fight of the Century.”

“I feel like this is a huge fight in my career,” Poirier said.

“First of all, I’ve never lost two fights in a row in my whole career. Since amateur, I’ve never lost two fights in a row. I want to prove to myself that I learn from mistakes – I get back to the grind, pick myself back up. And not only to myself, I want to prove to my family, the fans, my daughter that you can fall down and get back up and succeed. So this fight, for me personally, it’s very important for me to get a victory over another former world champion and add his name to my resume and legacy.”