UFC 269 – Charles Oliveira vs. Dustin Poirier – Lightweight Title Fight

On December 11 by USA time, and on December 12 by European time, a highly anticipated lightweight fight will occur at the T-mobile arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The headlining of the event will be a battle between newly crowned champion Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier.

Charles is a fantastic BJJ fighter with tremendous Muay Thai skills. He has been UFC for 11 years and has a bunch of experience. For this moment, Charles is on nine winning streaks. He defeated Michael Chandler for the vacated title fight in the second round via KO. Before that fight, he defeated Tony Ferguson, one of the most aggressive jiu-jitsu fighters with no chances. He also defeated excellent grappler/wrestler Kevin Lee. He earned five submission victories and 2 KOs in his last nine wins. He fought many different kinds of fighters, he has the experience of battle with grapplers, wrestlers, strikers, and it is a massive factor.

Dustin Poirier is one of the most challenging and robust fighters in the division. His boxing is on another level, and he also has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He defeated Conor McGregor twice in a row in his last two appearances. He already tried to earn the title, but Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated him via submission in the third round.  

From my point of view, it is one of the toughest battles to predict the end. Both fighters are great finishers and very experienced in the UFC. However, Dustin earned his victories against strikers in his last appearances, and when he faced Khabib, he suffered a massive loss. In the striking, Dustin will have an advantage, but Charles can handle it, but on the ground, I don't think that Dustin can survive against Oliveira for all five rounds.

Dustin will open this bout as the favorite with the odds around 1.6. Meanwhile, Charles's victory has an odd between 2.3-2.4, I think that Charles will earn the victory, but I am not sure if he will earn the finish because of some reasons. First of all, because of the fight against Tony Ferguson. He knew how dangerous he was, so he controlled him on the ground for the whole three rounds and did not even get tired, so I think there is a high opportunity that Oliveira plans to control Dustin on the ground for the entire fight. Still, if he gets the chance, he will finish the fight.