Tag: UFC 223

No. 5 UFC lightweight Dustin Poirier scored his biggest UFC win when he stopped oncoming freight train Justin Gaethje (full highlights here) in the main event of last night’s (Sat., April 14, 2018) UFC on FOX 29 from the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona.

The victory over the fan favorite slugger has Poirier on the outside looking in on the very top of the confusing UFC lightweight title picture, but in his post-fight interview, ‘The Diamond’ proclaimed he was already at the top by calling out current champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

It’s a fight that Dana White said would be a possibility, yet with a supremely lucrative grudge match against Conor McGregor looming for ‘The Eagle,’ it’d be more than a bit surprising to see Poirier get the next crack at the belt, especially with the damage he absorbed to his right leg last night.

So a rematch with former champion Eddie Alvarez, with whom Poirier shared a controversial no contest at last May’s UFC 211, has been pointed at as the next logical step for the surging ‘Diamond.’

He isn’t looking to settle old scores, however. During his post-fight scrum via MMA Fighting, Poirier said he has his mind on one thing – the championship gold – and doesn’t care about rematches with Alvarez or McGregor, who knocked him out after a heated build-up to their match at 2014’s UFC 178:

“I want to fight for gold, man,” Poirier said. “I’m not chasing rematches with Conor, rematches with Eddie, rematches with anybody. That’s not my goal. My goal is not to get even with these guys. My goal is to prosper and be a world champion and make money and retire and say I did it.”

His targeted path as a prizefighter an understandable one, it’s it’s a great idea to make as much money as possible in as short amount of time as he can in today’s cutthroat MMA business.

However, with a clearly damaged leg after his battle with “The Highlight,” Poirier could be facing some significant time away from the cage. That timing could potentially put him on a collision course with former interim champion Tony Ferguson, who had knee surgery last week after tearing his LCL fulfilling media obligations six days before his scheduled UFC 223 match-up with Nurmagomedov.

Khabib has discussed a November return himself, which could also work out for Poirier if the huge bout with McGregor doesn’t work. If it does for some reason, most feel Poirier would be ragdolled by the Dagestani’s mat skills, but “The Diamond” said many would be surprised by his skills in that area:

“I feel like my wrestling and jiu-jitsu is so underrated,” Poirier said. “People have no idea and I would love for a chance to show you.”

Underrated or not, they’d obviously have to be world-class if he wanted to have a legit shot at handing ‘The Eagle’ his first loss.

It seems like McGregor’s fight for now, and it probably should be. With his ‘Notorious’ fighting future still up in the air, just don’t be shocked to see ‘The Diamond’ slide into a title shot sometime soon.

The post Dustin Poirier Details Why He Doesn’t Want Conor McGregor Rematch appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

In the moments directly following Dustin Poirier’s fourth-round TKO win over Justin Gaethje (highlights here) in an insane main event at tonight’s (Sat., April 14, 2018) UFC on FOX 29 from the Gila River Arena in Glendale, Arizona, “The Diamond” took the opportunity to call out for a chance to climb the 155-pound mountaintop.

His victory over “The Highlight” wasn’t flawless, as he absorbed a ton of damage in the form of Gaethje’s lethal inside leg kicks, a seemingly endless stream of which seemed to find their mark on Poirier’s right leg.

But in the end, he picked up arguably his biggest win in the octagon by fighting through the pain into the fourth round where he rocked Gaethje with a big shot and followed with a precise fight-ending combination that forced Herb Dean to call it off.

In his post-fight interview, Poirier took hold of the moment and called for a bout against newly-minted lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov:

While it may sound like a far-away possibility with Nurmagomedov seemingly headed for a vast grudge match with former champ Conor McGregor, UFC President Dana White was understandably complimentary of ‘The Diamond’ when discussing the insane match-up at UFC on FOX 29 with Megan Olivi during the post-fight show on FOX Sports 2 .

In his opinion, Poirier fought his way to the top, and apparently, he was already close as White revealed ‘The Diamond’ was one of the fighters they considered as a short-notice replacement for the chaos at last week’s UFC 223 when Max Holloway was deemed unfit to fight in his own short-notice fight with Khabib:

“Absolutely. No, he’s definitely in there – he’s one of the guys we were thinking about calling, you know, last week to take the fight, but I didn’t wanna screw up this event. You know, thank God I didn’t.”

MMA fans everywhere have a reason to be thankful White did not tab Poirier as a last-minute replacement to face Khabib last week, but you would also have to think the UFC would not pass on the opportunity to cash in on what would legitimately be one of – if not the – biggest fights in UFC history between Khabib and McGregor.

In today’s era of social media-driven fights, that bout clearly tops a possible Nurmagomedov vs. Poirier fight for the time being, even if Poirier’s four-fight unbeaten streak is more than McGregor can lay claim to after more than a year-and-a-half on the bench.

Of course, injured former interim champion Tony Ferguson has won many more top bouts than that, so the title picture at 155 pounds is a bit more congested than White would suggest.

While it gets sorted, Poirier could potentially rematch former champ Eddie Alvarez, whom he almost defeated at UFC 211 last year before an illegal knee led to a questionable no contest from Herb Dean.

Who do you think should get the next shot at ‘The Eagle’s’ shiny new belt?

The post Dana White Reacts To Dustin Poirier’s Khabib Nurmagomedov Callout appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.