Conor McGregor has been warned Dustin Poirier has a 'big-time advantage' over him ahead of their trilogy bout at UFC 264. 

McGregor (22-5) is set to fight Poirier for a third time on July 10 in front of a sold-out T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

'The Notorious' will bid to get his career back on track after being knocked out in the second round of their rematch at UFC 257 in January of this year.  

Sylvester Stallone, speaking to TMZ, has questioned whether McGregor still has the same hunger and desire to reach the top again. 

Instead, Stallone believes Poirier (27-6, 1 NC) will have the edge over the former UFC lightweight champion when they throw down in Las Vegas, where the majority of the crowd will be rooting for the 32-year-old to return to the summit of the 155-pound division. 

However, the film star also stressed that the outcome of their fight is still too close to call.

He said: "That's a tough one. That is a real tough one.

"That one I swear you really flip a coin on. It's like who hits first.

"You got a really hungry, young guy [Poirier] and then you got a guy who's made a lot of money but he's also sort of hungry [McGregor].

"You have two guys that are psychologically a little hesitant, but Poirier has the big-time advantage."

Poirier is keen to repeat the job when they meet again this summer and hasn't been shy in vocalising that desire. 

But Artem Lobov has warned him he will be facing a very different McGregor to the one he faced previously. 

He said: "Conor [McGregor] is a very, very smart fighter.

"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."

"We have to give credit to Dustin. 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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