"I want to fight" - Dustin Poirier urges Dana White and the UFC to answer his call to compete
Former interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier has urged UFC boss Dana White to schedule a fight for him in the near future.
Poirier has had an eventful 15 months in the promotion. He became the first person to knock Conor McGregor out at UFC 257. He repeated the feat of beating the Irishman at UFC 264, where McGregor suffered a broken leg.
Following the trilogy fight, 'The Diamond' faced lightweight champion Charles Oliveira. However, he lost the contest via standing rear-naked choke in the third round at UFC 269.
Since the Oliveira fight, Poirier has been on the sidelines with his next opponent yet to be finalized. On Twitter, he addressed the situation and wrote:
"I want to fight"
I want to fight
Poirier has his sights set on a showdown against Nate Diaz. They’ve continued to exchange messages on social media over the past few months.
Gilbert Burns rips Colby Covington for avoiding welterweight contenders by calling out Dustin Poirier
Gilbert Burns is unsure if a win over welterweight sensation Khamzat Chimaev will automatically grant him another shot at the UFC belt. He sees Colby Covington as his definitive next step before a second crack at gold. However, 'Durinho' doesn’t believe Covington will ever agree to face him.
Covington defeated rival Jorge Masvidal in the main event of UFC 272 last month. He immediately called out another former teammate, lightweight contender Dustin Poirier.
On an episode of MMA Fighting’s Portuguese-language podcast Trocação Franca, Burns said:
“Covington dropped the ball by asking for Poirier instead of a [welterweight] contender. He doesn’t accept fights. That’s the hard part. I’ve been trying to get a fight with Colby for years and can’t. Colby is very smart... if you look at his fights, he doesn’t fight anyone who’s coming off a win... I don’t know, he doesn’t accept it and negotiates well, goes out there and talks a bunch of crazy stuff and a lot of people like his crazy talk. What can I do?"
Poirier, though, wasn't interested in pursuing a fight with 'Chaos'. He termed the callout as "cute" and said that Covington only went after him because he's not in line for the welterweight title shot and wants to face a big name.
As far as his future weight class, Poirier has previously hinted that he might be done at 155 pounds following his loss to Charles Oliveira in his last outing.