Gaethje was looking to bounce back from his first-ever loss, a third-round KO at the hands of former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez. The blueprint to defuse Gaethje had been laid out by Alvarez, but that didn’t make “The Highlight” any less of a threat as he headed into a pivotal matchup with Poirier.
A tactical approach again proved successful as Poirier outworked Gaethje before putting him away with strikes in the fourth. Poirier would follow up this impressive victory with a TKO of Alvarez and then a decision win over Max Holloway to capture an interim title.
Up next for Poirier, he takes on Conor McGregor in the lightweight main event of UFC 257 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. The bout is a rematch of their September 2014 featherweight encounter at UFC 178 that McGregor won by first-round TKO.
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