Almost three months after his R2 KO defeat by upcoming title challenger Dustin Poirier at UFC 299, #13 ranked lightweight contender Benoit Saint-Denis has spoken of his desire to climb the ladder and targets two fights in Europe by year’s end. UFC 302 sees Poirier have his third shot to clinch championship gold on Saturday, and plenty is at stake for the highly-regarded veteran….
BSD: Poirier the better boxer, but Islam more ways to win
HAVING suffered a sobering loss on the world’s stage in a career-best opportunity two months back, Benoit Saint-Denis returned to competition on May 18 and was victorious in a submission grappling contest at ADXC 4 on points against fellow UFC lightweight fighter Marc Diakiese from his native Paris. That’s an encouraging start.
If the 28-year-old gets his latest wish, he’ll fight in Great Britain for the first time on July 27 at Manchester’s newly-opened Co-op Live indoor arena for UFC 304 before returning home where he memorably logged a pair of second-round stoppage wins over Gabriel Miranda and Thiago Moises on Ciryl Gane undercards a year apart.
During an interview with MMAFighting, he was quoted as saying:
“I want to stay active and fight as soon as possible. I don’t know if it’s going to be [Manchester or Paris], but my manager is doing great work with the UFC to find the best place for me to compete and I want to climb the rankings, get at the top. I feel like I do belong there.
If I can be on both cards, I will be. I need a tough opponent to show I’m the best, my manager’s finding a matchup that everybody will want to see, and that will prove who is the next future contender.
I had a lot of stuff going on in my last fight, but I’m more determined than ever to become champion and need to work a lot. I’m ready to do it, on my way, just waiting for the next opportunity.”
Makhachev is favoured to make the third defence of his title against former interim champion Poirier, not least now that it’s been confirmed former champion and mentor Khabib Nurmagomedov will be in the champion’s corner this weekend.
“It’s a great fight, Dustin is very composed and experienced… has boxing on his side but Makhachev is very well-rounded.
I do believe he watched my fight against Poirier, as well as Dustin vs. [Charles] Oliveira, everyone knows what the gameplan is going to be… Makhachev trying to submit Poirier, Poirier trying to knock him out.”
Saint-Denis said he’d like a ranked name and naturally, there are a few above him that could make for good stylistic matchups.
“Makhachev, Tsarukyan, Gaethje, Poirier, all those guys but of course, you need to earn that. I will fight anybody the UFC gives me, but want to fight as high as possible.”
- on what Saint-Denis wants next going forward, his awareness of the situation coming off a loss
Lightweight matchups
UFC 302, June 1: Islam Makhachev (c) vs. Dustin Poirier [4]
UFC 303, June 29: Conor McGregor vs. Michael Chandler [6]
UFC 304, July 27: Paddy Pimblett vs. Bobby Green [15]
Injured: Justin Gaethje [3], Rafael Fiziev [8], Dan Hooker [11]
Rafael Fiziev (knee) and Renato Moicano are just two of those options, though it’ll be interesting to see what matchmakers have in store given his all-action approach.
Picture source: Getty Images, quotes hyperlinked
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