Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz were supposed to meet in the Octagon at UFC 230 in 2018. However, that fight ended up being scrapped. Around the time this happened Poirier told media that the cancellation was due to a nagging hip injury.
Poirier told Ariel Helwani at the time that training through pain was normal, but that his hip wound up bothering him so much that he couldn’t appropriately prepare for the fight.
Three years later Poirier was one of the guests on the first episode of Helwani’s revived The MMA Hour show. During that appearance Poirier hinted that there was more to this story than he initially let on.
“He won’t tell the true story of how the fight fell apart,” Poirier said, referring to Diaz [ht MMA Fighting]. “I’m the fall guy. I get some injections in my hip, and it looks like I pulled out of the fight, when the fight was already off the table at that point. … I just feel like we’ve got to fight at some point. But we’ll see.”
Poirier was talking about Diaz because the pair have been chatting it up online about a potential bout. After Poirier called out Diaz’s name on Twitter, Diaz responded and then eventually suggested that Poirier had rejected an offer to fight him. Diaz said that means he was now 2-0 against ‘Diamond’.
With Helwani Poirier called Diaz’s summation of the situation ‘wolf tickets’.
“You know how these negotiations go,” he said. “Unless they’re talking to him, and they said something. … Nothing’s been offered to me. I haven’t spoken to the UFC. I can’t say the same for Nate, for Nathaniel. But like I said, I think they will call me soon.”
“He’s a fighter I’ve been watching a long time,” added Poirier. “I think our styles match up well. I think it would be a great fight. But I’m not chasing it. There’s a possibility that it could happen, but on my things-to-do list, that’s not the next thing to do.”
Poirier then said that he was hoping for a UFC lightweight title fight with Charles Oliveira before the end of the year.
Poirier put himself in prime position to fight for the title after back-to-back TKO wins over Conor McGregor. The first of those came in January, with Poirier finishing the Irishman with punches in the second round. The second victory came after McGregor broke his leg at the end of the first round.
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