Former interim UFC lightweight champion, Dustin Poirier has urged former interim welterweight titleholder, and past American Top Team training partner, Colby Covington to switch focus and fight fellow welterweights, after the latter issued another callout to Poirier following UFC 272.
Poirier, who last featured at UFC 269 back in December, has been the subject of multiple callouts from former teammate, Covington following his undisputed lightweight title challenge loss to Charles Oliveira, as the Lafayette native continues to flirt with a welterweight division climb.
Dustin Poirier and Colby Covington previously trained together at American Top Team
For Covington, the #1 ranked contender at the welterweight limit, headlined UFC 272 last night at the T-Mobile Arena, lodging a rather one-sided unanimous decision win over Poirier’s teammate, former two-time welterweight title challenger, Jorge Masvidal over the course of five rounds.
Immediately following the victory, Covington, who has twice lost to current welterweight kingpin, Kamaru Usman, issued another venomous callout to Poirier, however, the Louisianan has stressed recently that he would never fight Covington with financial implications.
“I’ll never fight Colby (Covington) in an Octagon where there’s finances on the line,” Dustin Poirier said. “If I fight Colby, we’re both going to jail – I’m going to jail. You will never see me fight Colby Covington in the UFC.”
Last night, Covington issued another plea to Poirier to secure a fight against him next, once again targeting the former interim lightweight champion’s wife, and daughter.
In response, Poirier, who is currently vacationing in Jamaica, tweeted, “Bombaclat”, before urging Covington to still to the welterweight limit and fight contenders in his weight class instead.
“Maybez (sic) fight a welterweight contender?” Dustin Poirier tweeted.
During his post-fight press conference, Covington once more fired barbs at Poirier, questioning why he has not fought him already if he claimed a fight was “on-site” if they met.
“That fight (with Dustin Poirier) needs to happen,” Colby Covington said. “He’s talked too reckless in the media, he’s said, ‘It’s on-site” and the last time he was talking to you clickbait merchants he was saying, ‘Oh, I’m not gonna fight Colby in the Octagon where there’s finances on the line, I’m gonna fight him in the streets and we’re both gonna go to jail’. It’s funny, it’s very ironic because he talks about being a family guy, a good guy, but he wants to fight me in the streets and potentially go away from his family. Dustin Poirier has all these stipulations to fight me, I just have one stipulation – my one stipulation is he lets the world watch and enjoy themselves.” (Transcribed by BJPENN.com)