Dustin Poirier still hoping for the Tony Ferguson fight; Reveals plan for 2021
Dustin Poirier is waiting for his second fight of 2020. After a loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a title unification bout last year, Dustin Poirier bounced back with an incredible and hard-fought victory against rising Kiwi star Dan Hooker.
Dustin Poirier did enough to secure the decision victory to make sure that he's still in the hunt for Lightweight gold. He was scheduled to face Tony Ferguson in the co-main event of UFC 254 but talks fell through with UFC after they couldn't come to terms with how much the payment should be.
While Dana White stated that Dustin Poirier "doesn't want to fight", it's well-known that the statement is untrue. Dustin Poirier has stated on multiple occasions that he wants to fight Tony Ferguson and even the latter tweeted out to the UFC telling them to pay Dustin Poirier what he wants so that they can make the fight happen.
From the look of things, Dustin Poirier is still hopeful of the fight getting re-booked sometime later this year:
Will the Dustin Poirier-Tony Ferguson fight materialize?
Simply put, Dustin Poirier vs Tony Ferguson is the fight that makes the most sense right now. Tony Ferguson lost for the first time in eight years and Dustin Poirier is coming off an emphatic victory. It's a no-brainer that the fight should determine the next Lightweight Championship challenger. The others ranked below are far behind and have to work their way up to a title shot.
While Michael Chandler might be a back-up for Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Justin Gaethje, he should probably fight an opponent ranked outside the Top 5 just to get in the mix of things.
Dustin Poirier seems keen on fighting Tony Ferguson and appears to have a renewed respect for him after El Cucuy told the UFC to pay him what he wanted.