Dustin Poirier has revealed that he agreed to take on Islam Makhachev on short notice at UFC 294.
Makhachev was slated to defend his title for the second time against Charles Oliveira at UFC 294, but the Brazilian had to pull out due to injury.
When the UFC discovered that Oliveira was unable to compete, they reached out to multiple fighters, including Poirier. The promotion, however, took a different route by bringing in featherweight champion Alex Volkanovski, who was knocked out in the first round.
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Poirier revealed that he was one of the fighters offered to take on Makhachev and he even accepted the offer.
“I accepted it, my weight has been crazy low these last few months,” Poirier said. “I’ve stayed on a diet, I wouldn’t say a diet, but I’ve been eating really healthy these last few months, so making the weight wasn’t a problem. The thing was the UFC called me the day I landed in South Florida. I was just checking on my condo there, doing some training with my team there because I hadn’t been there since the fight. They called me the day I flew in, and I was like hey, perfect, let’s go…
“I thought it was perfect timing, I just planned the trip to Florida, a few hours after I got to my condo from the airport, I got a call and I knew my team was there. My boxing coach was there, Mike Brown was there and they were going to be there for the next couple of weeks. It was less than two weeks away and my team was all intact and ready to go. I thought it was a good time.”
Would Dustin Poirier have beaten Islam Makhachev?
