Dustin Poirier is ready to settle his beef with Nate Diaz even if it means a move up to 170 pounds.
Poirier, who is riding a high after knocking out Conor McGregor at UFC 257 this past January, is currently planning his next trip to the cage. Early indicators suggest that “Diamond” will meet McGregor in a highly-lucrative trilogy bout this summer, but that is nowhere close to being finalized.
That leaves Poirier open to fight just about anybody at this point in time, including Diaz. While Diaz hasn’t competed since a TKO loss to Jorge Masvidal all the way back at UFC 244 he does share a storied past with Poirier. The two men were scheduled to meet at UFC 230 before Poirier pulled out of the fight to fix an injured hip. It didn’t help that Diaz was reportedly “hard to deal with” during negotiations and even the weeks leading up to the fight.
During a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast Poirier reiterated his wish to fight Diaz inside of the Octagon. Poirier, who competed at featherweight from 2011-2014, would be willing to move all the way up to welterweight to get his chance at Diaz.
“Before I’m done fighting, I’ll go up to 170,” Poirier said. “Yeah, I’ll go up to 170 to fight Nate.”
Poirier, 32, has never been in a better position in his MMA career. His recent victory over McGregor lines him up for a title shot if current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov ever gets stripped. If Khabib stays put then “Diamond” can always run it back with McGregor later this year for another massive PPV blowout.
Of course, Poirier could always set his lightweight aspirations aside and give Diaz what the Stockton Native has been calling for. After all, the two men share some bad blood and should have scrapped well over two years ago.
“Me and him were supposed to fight at Madison Square Garden,” Poirier said. “I kind of was the fall guy—He gets to point and say I pulled out of the fight and I did. I went to get stem cells done on my hip.
“But I was going to fight, I was going to go through a camp and fight him if they wouldn’t have started offering me other replacement opponents, Nate was playing games with the UFC, UFC started offering me opponents and I said, ‘Look guys, if this is happening, I’m just going to have my hip taken care of.’ He’s a guy I’ve always wanted to fight.”
Only time will tell what Poirier decides to do, but the ball is certainly in “Diamond’s” court moving forward.
What say you, Maniacs? Do you think Poirier should risk his lightweight stock for a welterweight clash with Diaz?