Photo: Dustin Poirier poses with Fedor Emelianenko
UFC lightweight star Dustin Poirier posed with MMA icon Fedor Emelianenko for a photograph. ‘The Diamond’ later took to his official Twitter account and posted the photo of himself with Emelianenko.
Dustin Poirier attached a goat emoji alongside the photo, alluding to Fedor Emelianenko being the MMA GOAT (Greatest Of All Time).
The former interim UFC lightweight champion’s photo with ‘The Last Emperor’ has been displayed in his tweet that’s been embedded below:
🐐 https://t.co/5unkUBBtEN
Dustin Poirier’s most recent fight was a third-round submission loss against UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira in their title matchup at UFC 269 in December 2021. Poirier has lately been hinting at a potential move up to welterweight, where many believe he could face longtime rivals Nate Diaz and Colby Covington.
Meanwhile, former Pride FC heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko’s most recent fight was a first-round KO win over Timothy Johnson at Bellator 269 in October 2021. Bellator heavyweight champion Ryan Bader is set to face Emelianenko’s training partner, interim Bellator heavyweight champion Valentin Moldavsky, at Bellator 273 on January 29th, 2022.
Bellator MMA president Scott Coker believes that Ryan Bader beating Valentin Moldavsky could set up a rematch between Bader and ‘The Last Emperor.’ Coker revealed that Emelianenko would like to close out his MMA career by avenging his 2019 loss to Bader and winning the Bellator heavyweight belt.
Dana White on a potential fight between Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz
Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz were scheduled to clash in a lightweight bout back in 2018. However, the fight fell apart after Poirier withdrew due to injury issues. Fast-forward to 2021, and the feud between them appeared to have reignited.
The war of words between Poirier and Diaz has continued into the New Year as well. The Stockton MMA stalwart recently reiterated that he’d like to fight Poirier and jibed at the UFC for not scheduling their matchup at the earliest.
https://t.co/EqyEJsxAtr
Speaking to ESPN MMA, Dana White recently opened up about a possible Poirier-Diaz matchup. The UFC president suggested that the promotion is interested in booking the fight. White said:
"Yeah, of course, we're interested. This is what we do. We make fights every weekend. What happens is guys want to jump out of nowhere and say, 'I want to do this. I want to do that.' We have fights booked all the way until I want to say May 2 right now. Everything is in place, everything is done. I say this all the time. I've been saying this for 20 years. We're contracted to get guys fights three times a year. They've got to get fights. We'll get a fight."