Dustin Poirier | Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images
UFC 302 takes place this Saturday in New Jersey with Dustin Poirier once again challenging for the lightweight title, this time against the top pound-for-pound fighter in the world, Islam Makhachev, and the No Bets Barred boys are back to break it down.
Co-hosts Conner Burks and Jed Meshew kick things off with a brief discussion about the optimal UFC schedule before diving into the UFC 302 talk. . Will Poirier finally claim undisputed UFC gold and finish his story or will Makhachev deny him yet again? Can Paulo Costa pull off the upset on Sean Strickland to get himself back into title contention? Just how fun will Kevin Holland vs. Michal Oleksiejczuk be? All this and more are discussed on this week’s episode.
Tune in for episode 89 of No Bets Barred.
New episodes of the No Bets Barred podcast drop every Wednesday and are available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you find your favorite podcasts. The latest episode can be heard below.
Cesar Almeida punches Lucas Fernando with the new gloves on DWCS | Photo by Al Powers/Zuffa LLC
UFC debuts new gloves on Saturday in New Jersey, but Brazilian middleweight Cesar Almeida had a head start compared to other UFC 302 competitors.
Almeida faces Roman Kopylov on the preliminary portion of Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Newark, N.J., but was one of the fighters to wear the new UFC gloves as part of a test on the promotion’s Contender Series in 2023. The new gloves were officially announced in April 2024, but were discreetly tested by fighters on last year’s shows at the UFC APEX.
“I’m used to them already,” Almeida told MMA Fighting. All fighters competing at UFC 302 received new gloves to wear in camp for the event. “We used in training, even did the wraps with the cutman at the UFC PI, but it didn’t change much. Maybe it’s a bit lighter, some veterans complained about it. But, to me, it’s the same thing.”
Almeida won a decision over Lucas Fernando on Contender Series wearing the new gloves but switched back to the classic UFC gloves for his octagon debut in April 2024, knocking out Dylan Budka. Almeida now returns to wearing the new gloves at UFC 302.
“I’ve hit pads using them, I’ve grappled with them,” Almeida said, “and it protects your wrist a little bit more, it’s smaller here and there, but it doesn’t change much in my opinion, to be honest.”
The Brazilian striker, who holds kickboxing wins over the likes of Alex Pereira and ex-GLORY contender Serkan Ozcaglayan, hunts for his second UFC win after pocketing a performance bonus in his April debut for the second-round stoppage of Budka.
Kopylov has never been knocked out before in MMA, but Almeida knows “there’s always a first time for everything.”
“A win [by knockout] will put me up there already, but we’re preparing to fight three rounds,” Almeida said. “I’m training to end it early, but my head is prepared to go three rounds if I have to. I don’t think he will try to take me down, but this is MMA now. You can see the numbers. I think he will try to keep it where he’s more comfortable, which is the stand-up fight, and so will I.
“I think [UFC] wants to see ‘Cesinha’ the striker this time. I wasn’t able to show that because my previous opponents tried something different. I didn’t have the chance to stand and brawl for real in the UFC. It’s going to be a kickboxing match with small gloves, and that’s what people want to see.”
Islam Makhachev has a lot of respect for Dustin Poirier, even if he gives him no chance to actually win at UFC 302.
As he prepares to defend his lightweight title in Saturday’s main event from New Jersey, Makhachev addressed Poirier as an opponent after the American earned the opportunity with a single win over Benoit Saint Denis back in March. In many ways, Makhachev sees Poirier as the same fighter who faced his friend, mentor, and coach Khabib Nurmagomedov back in 2019.
The only difference now is Poirier is five years older.
“Honestly, he’s the same,” Makhachev said at UFC 302 media day. “Maybe [he’s older]. He doesn’t believe he can beat me. His coach doesn’t believe he can beat me. I know I can make this fight easy.
“I will finish him. Because I am on a different level. I am the best fighter in the world right now.”
Make no mistake, Makhachev admires Poirier and is actually rather excited for this fight after spending all of 2023 locked up in a pair of matchups against former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski.
That being said, Makhachev knows there’s a blueprint to follow when it comes to beating Poirier — and the two-time title challenger hasn’t shown any real proficiency in proving that strategy wrong.
“Honestly, my style is the worst style for him,” Makhachev said. “He can beat some strikers. He’s one of the best strikers in this game, but we’re not strikers. We’re MMA fighters. My skills are on a different level.
“I can strike with him, but I told you guys, if I want to make this fight easy, I know the way and everybody [else] know the way. Always when his opponent pressure him, take him down, he has the same problems always.”
If Makhachev didn’t feel like he had enough advantages already, he added one more piece to the puzzle with Nurmagomedov returning to coach and corner him for the upcoming fight on Saturday.
While the retired UFC Hall of Famer still helped Makhachev during his training camps, Nurmagomedov opted to stop cornering teammates more than a year ago to instead put more of a focus on his family and businesses outside of fighting.
Nurmagomedov kept a hectic travel schedule working with all the fighters in his camp, so he bowed out completely until making his return to corner Makhachev at UFC 302.
“This means a lot,” Makhachev said of Nurmagomedov returning to his corner. “This is like [adding] to striking 20 percent, to wrestling 20 percent, to the plan. It’s always great to have Khabib in the corner. Because I think he gives me good advice in a lot of fights. I remember with Gleison Tibau, he told me try to land the left hook. I did and I finished him. With [Dan] Hooker, he gave me very good advice when I finished him by armbar. With the title fight, he gave me a lot of good advice.
“Always good to have Khabib in the corner. It’s not just for me. Good news, everybody was happy when Khabib said, ‘I will be in the corner.’ Everybody understands he’s going to corner them too, and everybody was happy.”
Makhachev credits Nurmagomedov as an incredible coach, who pushes his fighters with the same kind of work ethic and discipline that was taught to him by his late father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov.
As far as the decision to come back and corner fighters again, Makhachev felt like Nurmagomedov could do just about anything but sit on the sidelines as nothing more than an observer.
“I think No. 1, he missed the feeling,” Makhachev said. “I think he was very nervous when he sits in a room watching the fight. He always takes care of us. He wants to help. That’s why he’s here, he’s going to be in my corner.”
Nurmagomedov put together a pretty impressive résumé as a coach and cornerman before taking a step back from the sport, but he’ll attempt to continue that momentum with his return for Makhachev’s fight at UFC 302.
Obviously, Makhachev expects a dominant win, but even if he vanquishes Poirier as expected, he still hopes “The Diamond” decides to shine a little longer rather than possibly calling it a career.
“I hope he [doesn’t] retire after this fight,” Makhachev said of Poirier. “I think he’s one of the biggest names in the sport. That’s why I respect him. I respect him because he has a lot of crazy fights in this sport. Just happy to beat someone who has a big name like Dustin. For the legacy, it’s going to be maybe the biggest name on my list.”
Kevin Holland finally had an opportunity to get revenge on “crazy” Nick Diaz, who went for the sauced-up Stockton slap after crossing paths with the welterweight “Trailblazer” inside the promotion’s APEX facility way back in 2018.
Unfortunately, the promotion wanted Holland to hold out for the UFC Abu Dhabi card in August.
“I was supposed to take a fight at 170 against a pretty big-name opponent, but they said he wasn’t going to be able to fight until August,” Holland said at the UFC 302 media day. “I said, ‘Damn, that’s a long time.’ And they’re like, ‘Bro, it’s only an extra month.’ And I was like, ‘Nah, that’s too long.’ It was Diaz.”
“I knew he was going to come back to fight, so I just thought I was going to smoke him, and then I was going to smoke Luque, too,” Holland continued. “Those two are fighting each other, so they can smoke each other. Two big ass joints. It was in Abu Dhabi. I wasn’t going to Abu Dhabi.”
Diaz will instead fight welterweight veteran Vicente Luque.
That freed up Holland to accept a middleweight showdown opposite Michal Oleksiejczuk as part of the upcoming UFC 302 pay-per-view (PPV) main card, which pops off this Sat. night (June 1, 2024) at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
For the rest of the UFC 302 fight card and PPV lineup click here.
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