Dustin Poirier says he is entering the twilight of his career.
Poirier, who is gearing up to face the up-and-coming lightweight contender Benoit Saint Denis, was linked to a fight against Nate Diaz a few years ago, but the match never materialized for various reasons. While their paths seem to be diverging, with Diaz now pursuing boxing, ‘The Diamond’ hasn’t completely ruled out the possibility of facing the Stockton native in the future.
Will it happen before it’s too late?
“The Nate one’s gonna get away, and I don’t know how many fights I have left — I think six with the UFC,” Poirier said during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. “He’s moving on to boxing and stuff. I just don’t see how our paths will cross. But I just wanted to fight this guy because I grew up watching him.”
Poirier and Diaz were slated to face off at UFC 230, but the bout didn’t happen, reportedly due to an injury sustained by the Louisiana native. However, the former UFC interim lightweight champion refutes the claim.
“I would have liked it to happen,” Poirier said. “But I would really like for the UFC or for Nate to be honest and tell the truth about why that fight fell apart, because everybody still thinks I pulled out and all this. He was playing a bunch of games with the UFC. They started off offering me replacement opponents, telling me was off the card. I had a hip problem going on. I let the UFC know. Everyone knew I was gonna fight if it was him. If they use a replacement fighter, I’m out. I’ll fight if it’s him, I’ll push through this training camp, I’m fine, but I need to get this taken care of. And when they started offering replacement opponents, I was like, ‘I’m not fighting these replacement guys.’”
What do you make of these comments?
