Dustin Poirier’s matchup with Nate Diaz at UFC 230 was doomed for the beginning.
Well before “Diamond” was injured and removed from his co-main event scrap with Diaz at UFC 230 on Nov. 3 from New York City, Diaz revealed that he might not even fight on the card. It was a confusing situation that UFC president Dana White didn’t want to handle.
As UFC scrambled to find a main event for UFC 230, Poirier and Diaz had their lightweight bout changed a few times over. From rumors of a 165-pound title fight to a proposed five-round lightweight affair, few knew how the co-main event was going to play out.
“We don’t even have enough time to talk about all the times it was changed,” Poirier said during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour. “The fight was on, it was off, it was just crazy, there was a lot of crazy stuff going on.”
Poirier, who is projected to miss the next three weeks to recover from his nagging hip injury, went into detail about the various negotiations and how Diaz wasn’t an easy party to deal with.
“They wanted to switch it to five rounds, man, it was just so messed up dude,” Poirier said. “Nate was being hard to deal with, I believe. Every weight class they offered it at 155 and he wanted 160 and I agreed to that. He kind of negotiated himself out of a main-event spot. They offered us the main event, I accepted, Nate over-negotiated, they lost the main event, it was just back-to-back days of him trying to have his way, honestly.”
The 29-year-old fighter has also caught a lot of backlash from the MMA community after removing himself from UFC 230.
“A lot of these fans are blowing me up on social media saying you blew an opportunity, your big payday and stuff like that, they don’t understand how contracts work,” Poirier said. “I don’t get PPV points to fight Nate Diaz. I don’t know what anyone thinks is going on here, but, I took this fight not because it was a big-money fight, but because it was a big opportunity. It’s a huge headache with all the stuff that he was playing.”
While Poirier’s injury knocked him out of one of the biggest fights of his career, the lightweight contender is still sitting pretty at 155 pounds. Having posted a 8-1 (1 NC) record since his move up from featherweight back in 2015, “Diamond” is on the short list of deserving title contenders, especially with recent knockout victories over Eddie Alvarez, Anthony Pettis, and Justin Gaethje.
Poirier is hoping to harness his recent success and return to the Octagon for another big fight, whether it’s against Diaz or not.
“I have my eyes on everybody man, honestly,” Poirier said. “Like I said after my last fight, I want big fights, my goal is to be the world champion. So whatever fight makes sense. I felt like this Nate fight makes sense. If the UFC can get him to play ball, maybe we’ll do it, if not, we’ll see what shakes out, man and what’s next, but I need big fights.”
UFC 230 will be headlined by a heavyweight title fight pitting current champion Daniel Cormier against knockout artist Derrick Lewis, and now feature a co-main event clash between former middleweight champion Chris Weidman and Brazilian contender Jacare Souza.
For more UFC 230 fight card news click here.