We may yet see Dustin Poirier face off against Nate Diaz. The two elite fighters have had multiple back and forth verbal exchanges over the years. They also had a fight booked for UFC 230, back in 2018. However, the fight fell through due to picking up an injury.
Since then, Poirier has gone on to become regarded as one of the greatest lightweights on the planet. ‘The Diamond’ most recently TKO’d the ‘Notorious’ Conor McGregor in their much anticipated rematch. This win secured his place as the number 1. contender as 155lbs. It also managed to get him an interview with Joe Rogan.
Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, Poirier addressed the cancleed Daz fight. He had the following to say:
“Me and him were supposed to fight at Madison Square Garden. 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” (as transcribed by MMA Fighting).
Poirier also stated that he is not yet done with Diaz.
“Before I’m done fighting, I’ll go up to 170. Yeah, I’ll go up to 170 to fight Nate.”
Diaz has not fought since 2019, where he picked up a loss to Jorge Masvidal due to doctors stoppage. However, he has openly criticised Poirier for his decision to pursue a trilogy fight with McGregor.