Former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier may have come up short in his bid to capture the undisputed title following his submission loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 269 just last month, but that doesn’t mean “The Diamond” is going to stay home and cry himself to sleep every night.
Not when there are asses to be whooped.
At the top of the list is longtime rival Nate Diaz, who like Poirier, is looking to slug his way back into the win column. The Stockton bad boy went down on points in a welterweight affair opposite Leon Edwards at the UFC 263 pay-per-view (PPV) event last June.
Sounds like a deal is contingent on a signature from Diaz.
“Normally I would say no, because I need eight weeks, 10 weeks,” Poirier told Teddy Atlas. “It’ll be a barnburner. Look, I’m not biting my tongue, it is Nate Diaz. I’m not going to say what card, I’m not going to say a date or whatever. This guy really fights and I’m a fan of his, but everybody’s a tough guy on the Internet. He said something like, ‘Let’s do it’ — I said ‘Okay, I’ll fight you this month.’ Less than six weeks for sure. I said yes. Now we’re waiting on him.”
Hard to be optimistic when the fate of a fight is in the hands of Diaz.
This isn’t the first time Poirier and Diaz have been in talks to throw down. In fact, the promotion had contracts in place for UFC 230 right up until a “small setback” canceled the booking and sent Diaz “back out on tour,” which probably involved something like this.
Nothing is official at this time and with Diaz involved, this one probably isn’t a lock until the cage door closes on fight night. That said, the ESPN event on Feb. 19 still does not have an official headliner and that’s less than six weeks away. There’s also room in the UFC 271 lineup on Feb. 12 in Houston.
Stay tuned.