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Former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier is ranked as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the promotion, but Henry Cejudo doesn’t think that’s warranted.
According to the official UFC standings, “The Diamond” is currently ranked No. 8 on the men’s pound-for-pound list, sitting above the likes of flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo and light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochazka.
Poirier will look to get back into the win column on November 12 when he clashes against Michael Chandler at UFC 281 in New York City. The Diamond last fought in December when he lost out on undisputed UFC gold for a second time, losing to Charles Oliveira via third-round rear-naked choke at UFC 269.
Well, during a recent Q&A on his YouTube channel, Cejudo questioned why Poirier was on the prestigious list.
“First of all, Chandler doesn’t have gold and neither does Poirier,” Cejudo said (h/t BJPenn.com.). “I don’t know why Poirier is pound-for-pound, I really don’t. With all due respect to Poirier, there’s no way you can put guys that have been knocked out and submitted and all that on the pound-for-pound list. Buy anyway, that’s you fans, that’s you people, but whatever.”
Poirier Holds Wins Over Several Former UFC Lightweight Champions, Lost 3 Times at 155 Pounds
All in all, Dustin Poirier has a professional mixed martial arts record of 28-7 with one no-contest. He’s 12-3 with one no-contest since moving up from featherweight to lightweight in 2015. During the stretch, he earned wins over the likes of Conor McGregor, Justin Gaethje, Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis and Dan Hooker.
He became the 155-pound interim champion in April 2019 at UFC 236 after picking up a unanimous decision victory over then-featherweight king Max Holloway.
Poirier attempted to unify the title in his next outing against Khabib Nurmagomedov, but like the Oliveira fight two years later, he was forced to tap in the third round due to a rear-naked choke.
His only other loss at lightweight came in 2016 when he was knocked out by Michael Johnson.
Gaethje Wants to Rematch Poirier if The Diamond Beats Chandler
It’s unclear if a win over Chandler would be enough to set Poirier up for another championship fight. And if it doesn’t, Gaethje would love to fight Poirier again. The two battled in 2018 and the fight earned “Fight of the Night” honors.
The bloody contest made it into the third round and Poirier would end up getting the stoppage finish via TKO. And Gaethje, who is coming off a loss to Oliveira as well, would love to right that wrong.
“There’s pretty big fights going on,” Gaethje said in a recent interview with MMA Mania. “The championship, Beneil [Dariush] and [Mateusz] Gamrot, you got Chandler and Poirier. Someone’s gotta fight the winners and losers of all these fights. I don’t think I should fight the winner of the title fight but I can fight the winner of any other of those fighters. I don’t want to fight Beneil.
“Ideally, Poirier beats Chandler, I’d like to fight Poirier,” he continued. “I mean, he beat me. That’s one win I’d like to get back. It was Fight of the Year, Fight of the Decade — Fight of a Couple Years, probably. That was a hell of a fight. That’s ideal.”
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