"I never thought Dustin would take that fight" - Daniel Cormier excited about potential Colby Covington vs. Dustin Poirier bout

L-R: Dustin Poirier, Daniel Cormier, and Colby Covington [Photo credit: @espnmma on Instagram]

Daniel Cormier is excited about a potential matchup between former teammates Dustin Poirier and Colby Covington.

After initially stating that he's uninterested in fighting Covington, Poirier has apparently changed his mind about the matter. During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, 'The Diamond' revealed that he's now willing to take on Covington as the alternative would force him to wait until the end of the year.

.@ColbyCovMMA July 30th i accept

Poirier's comments were music to Cormier's ears, who admitted that he has always been intrigued about the matchup. During a recent episode of The DC & RC show on ESPN MMA, the former champ-champ said:

"I love it! I never thought Dustin would take that fight because when you look at it on paper it seemed to be a nightmare, right? Colby is just gonna try to wrestle him and as we saw with Khabib and some other spots – Eddie Alvarez back in the day – Dustin can struggle with the wrestling at times. He has improved tremendously to become the [interim] world champion. But for him to say, 'I'm down,' it just tells me that a lot of the other matchups that Dustin wants are not coming to fruition and the dude is an absolute fighter."

Catch Daniel Cormier's comments on a potential Dustin Poirier vs. Colby Covington bout:

'The Diamond' previously stated that he wanted no part of anything that would lead to financial success for Covington. However, Cormier believes 'Chaos' is also a stylistic problem for Poirier, another reason the Louisiana native should avoid his former teammate.

Dustin Poirier says he's "p***ed off" he opened the door for Colby Covington

Dustin Poirier may be willing to fight Colby Covington, but he made it clear that he wouldn't be happy about it. In fact, Poirier admitted that he's annoyed at himself for merely entertaining the idea. Appearing as a guest on The MMA Hour, Poirier said:

“I’m kind of pissed off at myself for saying I would do it. Not that I’m worried about the guy or his skillset or anything like that. I just don’t want the f*cking guy to prosper because I said yes to a fight with him. I don’t want that. I don’t want him to make a dollar off of anything I’ve done, or fighting me, period."

Nonetheless, Poirier acknowledged that he can't always pick and choose his opponents. With that being the case, it's entirely possible for the UFC to announce a Poirier vs. Covington matchup sometime in the near future.