Getty (L-R) Opponents Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor pose face off for media during the UFC 257 press conference.
UFC superstar Dustin Poirier gave his take on the possibility of taking on rival Conor McGregor for the fourth time.
Former interim lightweight champion Poirier is coming off a defeat to uncrowned champion and current top contender Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 in Dec. 2021. After a nearly year-long break, Poirier will finally mark his return to action at UFC 281 on Nov. 12. He will get the chance to settle his disputes with Michael Chandler inside the octagon after getting into an altercation earlier in July.
‘Diamond’ had been rallying to get booked for an outing and got linked to a contest with fellow fan favorite Nate Diaz. However, a lack of interest from the promotion never saw the bout happen. There was speculation that the UFC kept the Louisiana native on the sidelines for McGregor’s comeback, but no concrete developments followed.
McGregor was defeated by Poirier twice last year and suffered a horrific leg break injury that required him to undergo surgery. He has been swiftly recovering and getting back to training properly and recently made headlines for a clip of himself showing off his jacked physique.
In an interview with Heavy, CELSIUS-sponsored athlete Poirier shared his thoughts on potentially fighting ‘The Notorious’ for the fourth time.
“We’ll see. Obviously, he’s where the money is at,” Poirier said. “He’s still, even after the losses, after whatever he does, he’s still one of the biggest names in the sport. It grows my platform, it grows the things that’s attached to my platform, with my charity and other businesses. It’s good business but at the same time, we got to see when he comes back, how he looks, and where I’m at in the race to the title.”
Poirier Is Not Sure Why It Took So Long for UFC To Announce the Fight
Poirier declared his upcoming bout with Chandler on his social media accounts and confirmed the news numerous times despite a lack of an official announcement from the UFC. The promotion remained quiet on the fight, leading to much confusion until recently when they authorized it for UFC 281.
‘Diamond’ talked about what went on behind the scenes and theorized certain reasons for the delay.
“I’m not really sure. I don’t know if they were trying to find the right card to put the fight on before they announced it. I have no clue why it took so long to get announced but we had been talking about this fight for a while before it was officially announced by the UFC.”
‘Diamond’ Says He May Have ‘Jumped the Gun’
He detailed the process for booking a fight and admitted that he may have acted too soon on the report.
“But you know how things go with fighting. They’ll offer me a fight, I verbally agree, they’ll offer it to Michael or whoever the opponent is, they’ll verbally agree. So, the UFC knows we are both in and then before they send the bout agreements, contracts get signed, and a lot of things happen. Maybe I jumped the gun by talking about it before things were official.”