(photo by Tracy Lee for Yahoo! Sports)
A featherweight bout looks to be in the works between Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier (9-1) and Rani Yahya (16-6) for the upcoming UFC 131 event in June.
Heavy.com reported the news on Saturday who was informed of the bout by sources close to the fight.
Both men made their UFC debuts in their last fights, as well as making a move back to 145 lbs.
Poirier dropped to 145 lbs after two bouts as a lightweight in the WEC. In his UFC debut he earned a unanimous decision over Josh Grispi at UFC 125. Under the WEC banner he went 1-1 earning a TKO win over Zach Micklewright at WEC 52 and losing a unanimous decision to Danny Castillo at WEC 50. The loss was the first of his career and ended a seven fight win streak.
Meanwhile his opponent Yahya moves back up to 145 lbs after a long stint at bantamweight which included a WEC bantamweight title loss to Chase Beebe at WEC 30. In his return to featherweight he earned a unanimous decision over Mike Brown last month at the UFC: Fight for the Troops 2 event in Fort Hood, Texas. The win saw him erase back-to-back losses at 135 lbs to Takeya Mizugaki and Joseph Benavidez.
UFC 131 is not yet official, but is expected to take place on June 11 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The expected headliner should be a heavyweight bout between “TUF 13″ coaches Brock Lesnar and Junior dos Santos.