Chael Sonnen explains why he believes Conor McGregor's prime is ahead of him

UFC legend Chael Sonnen thinks that we haven't yet seen Conor McGregor's prime. In his recent YouTube video, Sonnen analyzed the changes that McGregor and Dustin Poirier have gone through since they last fought in 2014.

"The American Gangster" believes that while Poirier has undeniably gotten better, McGregor is yet to achieve his prime.

"Everybody has a prime and you never know when it is... it appears that Conor's prime is still in front of him, and there are things that will happen that are absent of Conor's control to help affect what his prime is. You naturally, as you mature, as a human being, get a strength that you didn't have to go earn... some guys will even refer to it as old man strength or as dad's strength because it's one of these things that just happens in life naturally. I bring that for you and to you because Conor McGregor, I am not convinced is through his prime," explained Sonnen.

The former UFC middleweight further referred to McGregor's remarkable performance against Donald Cerrone and stated that if the Irishman is able to thrive on his natural gifts without doing his utmost, he will feasibly improve himself even more in the coming time.

"His (McGregor's) DNA and good timing is still going to catch him and he is going to get rewards. I feel we saw that the night he fought Cowboy... you had a guy who hadn't been in the ring; it was like 500 days or something incredible where you didn't even realize Conor had been gone that long. You have very meaningful built-in lifestyle changes due to money, things that he can do and wants to do with his time that don't force him into the gym if he elected to not go. You had Conor tipping the scale at the highest he had ever weighed in his competitive life which is a terrible, terrible sign... and you have a performance that blew you away," said Sonnen.

Chael Sonnen believes it's hard to evaluate how much McGregor has changed in the past six years

Chael Sonnen also added that Dustin Poirier has improved himself significantly since he last fought Conor McGregor, thanks to the string of fights he was involved in against the likes of Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethe, Max Holloway and Khabib Nurmagomedov to name a few.

However, the 43-year-old believes that it's tough to ascertain McGregor's development because we haven't seen enough of him and 'The Notorious' is only getting better, given his last performance against Donald Cerrone.

"If you do just go back to his (McGregor) last fight he had with Cowboy and all those numbers being against him and to turn in a performance that was just so shockingly well done, people were insulting Cowboy... Poirier's gross and gains are very clear, I am suggesting for you Conor has the same gross in gains, they're just a little bit harder to see."

While Sonnen has put forth a valid point, it will be interesting to see what McGregor has got under his belt when he locks horns with Poirier. In a fight that will most likely have title implications, The Notorious and The Diamond will be looking to leave no stone unturned in their preparation for the super-fight.