Dustin Poirier believes UFC San Diego will be postponed

The coronavirus has hit the UFC, along with the rest of the sports industry really hard. In a matter of weeks, the ongoing pandemic has brought a booming industry down on its knees and for the industry faithful, it's a hard pill to swallow.

The UFC was forced to cancel three cards and lose out on their star attraction - reigning undefeated UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. The Dagestani was set to feature in the headliner of UFC 249 on April 18 but later had to pull out, thanks to the coronavirus leading to the implementation of a travel ban in his native Russia.

UFC president Dana White's decision to go ahead with UFC 249 drew heavy flak from the sporting world and even UFC athletes such as Derrick Lewis and Dustin Poirier have publically stated that now isn't the best time to host MMA events.

In a recent interview with ESPN, Poirier, who's currently booked to fight Dan Hooker in the main event of UFC San Diego on May 16 has revealed that he believes the event will not take place on the scheduled date given the current situation. He even said that at the moment, training for a fight is impossible, therefore it won't be too bad if the event gets postponed.

“I don’t think so. I really don’t. I don’t have that feeling. Honestly, there’s no way to properly prepare. So I can’t really - I can jog and stuff, I can get in shape, but to be fine-tuned for a fight at the highest level, I can’t do it. I don’t know what my opponent is doing, as well. I don’t know if he’s not being able to train. So May seems like a push, but we’ll see.”

Poirier has been out of action since losing to the reigning Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov in the headliner of UFC 242 in Abu Dhabi back in September 2019.