In this here rematch (Poirier went on to defeat Gaethje by TKO in the third round back in 2018) we are going to see “The Diamond” as the -125 favorite at the best UFC betting sites.
The two fighters have each won and lost the interim lightweight championship in the five years since they fought in Glendale.
Poirier won the interim title off of Max Holloway at UFC 236 before he lost the unification bout to Khabib Nurmagomedov. Gaethje won the interim title off of Tony Ferguson at UFC 249 before he also lost it to Khabib.
Gaethje and Poirier are each coming off a win and they are two of the division’s best punchers. The winner of this fight is likely to get another shot at the belt.
Moreover, the winner will be awarded the BMF belt, which is an obvious ripoff of both Sam Jackson’s wallet in Pulp Fiction and Taz’s FTW Championship.
UFC 291 Poirier vs. Gaethje Odds by BetOnline
| Fighter | Odds |
|---|---|
| Justin Gaethje | +105 |
| Dustin Poirier | -125 |
Betting Dustin Poirier
Assuming that the fight goes the full five rounds, Dustin Poirier should strive to neutralize the early onslaught from Gaethje. And he is going to have to do it quickly, too.
In their first-ever fight in 2018, “The Highlight” came out blazing out of his corner (well, insofar as an octagon can be said to have corners) and crushed Poirier with inside leg kicks. Being a boxer, this put Dustin’s base in a compromising situation; nonetheless, he managed to bounce back.
As the bout went on, the Lousiana-born resorted to his boxing and smashed Gaethje in the belly when he shelled up his nogging. That’s the good stuff right there. In the rematch, Poirier has to keep this fight as far away from the clinch as he possibly can. He will win if he checks those leg kicks and maintains a good distance, where his strikes and kicks will be more effective.
Betting Justin Gaethje
He has to drop the head and play it by ear. Every Gaethje fight comes to about the same: he will use his low kicks, he will wiggle inside, and he will move his head and throw uppercuts.
He did have his moments against Poirier at UFC on Fox 29. When things got dicey, that is when Gaethje thrived.
Poirier didn’t appear to be able to handle his own injured orbital as well as Gaethje did, and when Justin got in close and hit Dustin with a right hook, it opened his window of opportunity wide.
Justin Gaethje will win this fight if he closes the distance and presses this fight to the side of the cage.
He was successful in that scenario in 2018, and Poirier has shown to be vulnerable when he has his back to the fence. At UFC 280, Michael Chandler cut Poirier off and went to town on him. Gaethje needs to do the same if he wants to stand a chance at UFC 291.
UFC 291 Pick
If Dustin remains at -125 at the best online sportsbooks, we are all over it. He has always been the superior fighter, and at this moment he is at his very best ever. Gaethje is also talented, but he relies a lot on his thuggish cunning.
The Diamond is too smart to fall for any of Gaethje’s shenanigans. We will take Dustin to win outright, with a value bet on him winning inside the distance.
UFC 291 will be the promotion’s third trip to Salt Lake City in Utah, as well as the first since UFC 278 in August 2022.
A lightweight rematch pitting former interim UFC Lightweight Champion Dustin Poirier against Justin Gaethje (who is also a former WSOF Lightweight Champion) is scheduled to headline the event.
They will also be competing for the meaningless BMF (baddest expletive deleted) title, which has been abeyant since the original holder Jorge Masvidal retired in April. The matchup first took place at UFC on Fox: Poirier vs. Gaethje in April 2018 when Poirier won with a TKO in the fourth round.
The fight was deemed to be the Fight of the Year by several media outlets.A welterweight match between erstwhile UFC Welterweight Championship challenger Stephen Thompson and Michel Pereira was slated to take place at UFC 289,[5] but it was rescheduled for this card instead.
Matthew Semelsberger and Yohan Lainesse were projected to clash in a welterweight fight at the event. On July 10, however, Lainesse was dropped from the event for unknown reasons and he was replaced with Uroš Medić.
Joanne Wood was slated to meet with Priscila Cachoeira in a women’s flyweight bout at the preliminary card.
