Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Dustin Poirier came up short in his bid to dethrone current Ultimate fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, at UFC 242 a few weeks ago in Abu Dhabi, losing to “The Eagle” via third round submission.
Afterward, “The Diamond” hinted at the possibility of calling it a day. A few days later, though, “The Diamond” emerged on social media to call for a rematch against Conor McGregor. And during a recent interview on The Ariel Helwani MMA Show, Dustin confirmed he will fight again and is eager to return better than ever.
“It makes me want to do better, do more, come back stronger and show that it’s another lesson I learned. Dust myself off again and show you that I can do it,” he said. “It motivates me. It sucks that you get on these streaks and get so close to the mountain top and then you get knocked down again. But I am familiar with that.”
Indeed, the loss to Khabib snapped Poirier’s five fight win streak, dating back to 2017. So you can’t blame Dustin for being down. that said, he is far from out.
“I promise you I am going to rise again and I am going to get my hand raised, beat who I have to beat and I will be back. I’ll be knocking on that door again, I just hate to have to dust myself off over and over again, but this is my story,” he said.
“This is my path. I don’t try to look for an explanation as to why this happened. I know I am one of the best in the world, and when it all does finally come together, It is going to be beautiful and it’s my story. It’s a love and hate relationship. Sometimes I love this so much and sometimes I hate it. It’s something that keeps breaking your heart but you keep going back to it. I can’t stop and I will not stop. I know have greatness in me, and I just have to show the world, keep rising.”
Looking back at the fight and the whole trip to Abu Dhabi, Dustin says there are several things he could do different, such as arriving earlier and making some tweaks to his submission attempt in round two.
At the end of the day, the former interim champion is confident he has what it takes to take down they mighty “Eagle.”
“He is a special individual, but I can beat him. I just let myself down that night and it sucks.”
As far as his next step, he still wants “Notorious,” though he now has to worry about that money fight going to Justin Gaethje. McGregor, though, isn’t too interested since he’s dusted him once before.