After he suffered a submission loss to current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) lightweight champion Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 (see it here), a deflated Dustin Poirier wasn’t sure what the future was in store for him. A few days later, “Diamond” is ready to get back on the horse. But he will do so for only one fighter.
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Poirier says there is only potential challenge that gets him excited enough to get back into the Octagon at the moment. And it’s a very familiar face.
“When I’ve been laying down thinking about fights, nothing gets me excited — unless Nate Diaz wants to fight,” Poirier said (via MMA Fighting) “If he wants to fight, that gets me excited. But all these other guys like even the new guys, and whoever it is, maybe a name will [get me excited] whenever I hear it, but nothing [right now].”
A few hours later, Diaz responded to the callout on social media, saying he would be more than willing to fight the former interim lightweight champion inside the world-famous Octagon in Jan. 2022.
In turn, Poirier responded to Diaz by saying not only is he down for January, but he’d be willing to take the fight before the years is over. The fight — if it were to come to fruition — would likely take place in the “real man’s division” welterweight division since Poirier also stated that he isn’t in too much of a hurry to make the cut down to 155 pounds again.
As for Diaz, he hasn’t competed since losing to Leon Edwards at UFC 263 earlier this year, his second straight loss. UFC threw out the idea of booking the Stockton slugger against Khamzat Chimaev but eventually moved on after Diaz shut down the “rookie.”
The youngest of the Diaz brothers has one more fight remaining on his current deal, which means if the promotion doesn’t lock him down with an extension soon he could be looking at free agency once his final fight is fulfilled.
Poirier and Diaz were booked to fight one another at UFC 230 in 2018 but the bout was scratched after “Diamond” bowed out with an injury, and the promotion never revisited the matchup again.
It’s now or never…