UFC on Fox 30: 5 talking points
The last time the UFC headed to Calgary, Alberta, Canada just over six years ago, they put on one of the worst PPVs in company history in the form of UFC 149. Last night’s card promised so much more than that and thankfully, it delivered.
With the recent ‘big’ Fox cards being largely underwhelming, this one looked strong on paper – featuring a likely classic main event between Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez as well as the returns of former champions Jose Aldo and Joanna Jedrzejczyk – and in the end we got plenty of talking points from the night’s action. Here are 5 of them.
#1 Poirier is a legitimate title contender, but how far down the line is he?
After last night, it’s hard to deny that Dustin Poirier is a legitimate title contender at Lightweight. His win over Eddie Alvarez was his third in a row – and probably would’ve been his fifth in a row had the first fight between the two ended in a disqualification for Alvarez as it should’ve – and he hasn’t lost now since a September 2016 fight with Michael Johnson. He’s beaten former UFC, WSOF and WEC champions along the way.
The only problem ‘The Diamond’ has is that even with a strong victory over a former champ like Alvarez, he’s probably not actually any closer to a title fight than he was going into Saturday night’s show. Alvarez was ranked at #3 in the division and Poirier is likely to take that spot on Monday, but even then, both Conor McGregor and Tony Ferguson probably have more of a claim to a title shot than he does.
Ferguson hasn’t fought since October 2017, but he’s still on a 10-fight win streak and never lost his Interim title. And McGregor – who is now cleared to restart his career after his brush with the law following the UFC 223 bus incident – never lost the full title in the first place and realistically could probably pick a title fight in any division, such is his drawing power.
The best hope for Poirier is that McGregor and the UFC simply can’t come to a deal, and current champ Khabib Nurmagomedov chooses to defend his title before Ferguson is ready to return. But if the UFC manage to put together Khabib vs. McGregor for later in the year, Poirier might be on the outside looking in, despite such a great showing last night.