Conor McGregor's sparring partner has predicted The Notorious will knock Dustin Poirier out cold, warning: 'There's no stopping him.' 

McGregor (22-5) will face his long-time rival for a third time at UFC 264 after being knocked out in the second round when they rematched in January. 

The former UFC lightweight champion has previously gone on record stating that he plans to take a page out of Anderson Silva's book and put Poirier to sleep with 'a front kick to the nose'.

Unlike McGregor, Artem Lobov is usually a lot more understated than his charismatic teammate.

But 'The Russian Hammer' - who trains at SBG Ireland under head coach John Kavanagh - didn't hold back when he was asked to predict the outcome of their trilogy bout on July 10.

"Conor [McGregor] is a very, very smart fighter," Lobov said to Lethwei star Dave Leduc on the 'Bareknuckle Uncensored' podcast. "I just feel the last fight he maybe took it a little bit lightly and thought, 'I’ll just show up and do what I do and destroy him.'

"Not only that, he was already mentally and physically getting ready for a boxing fight so he wasn’t thinking leg kicks - no MMA.

"He just thought it was going to be the same way as the first fight."

While Lobov (13-15-1, 1 NC) admits he respects Poirier, he has warned 'The Diamond' that he will be facing a much tougher opponent in the rematch at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

"We have to give credit to Dustin," he added. "He’s done his homework.

"He’s improved a lot since the first fight and he did a good job.

"But I think now when Conor is switched on, he knows what’s up. His full focus is on this fight.

"He’s studied him, he looked at what the issues were in the second fight and honestly when Conor shows up like that? There’s no stopping him.

"So I see him stopping Dustin early, first, maybe second round. I want to say first. My prediction is first round but it could go into the second."

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