Dustin Poirier says he “always wanted to fight” Nate Diaz.
Before he calls it quits on his MMA career, Dustin Poirier wants to tick a welterweight fight with Nate Diaz off his bucket list.
Poirier and Diaz were scheduled to meet at UFC 230 in 2018, but the matchup fell through when Poirier suffered an injury. The Lafayette native Poirier is likely to fight for the UFC lightweight title next, whilst Diaz hasn’t fought since losing to Jorge Masvidal in 2019.
Despite never fighting at welterweight, the top lightweight contender Poirier said on The Joe Rogan Experience that he will move up to 170-pounds before retiring.
“Before I’m done fighting, I’ll go up to 170,” Poirier said (via MMA Fighting). “Yeah, I’ll go up to 170 to fight Nate.”
Following their cancelled fight in 2018, Poirier went on to capture interim gold against Max Holloway and Diaz picked up his first win in over three years against Anthony Pettis.
“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.”
Diaz has shown no interest in returning to lightweight, calling out Poirier for a welterweight scrap earlier this month.