John McCarthy has suggested the reason Dustin Poirier is so hesitant to fight Colby Covington isn’t because he doesn’t want to give ‘Chaos’ any more attention but rather because ‘The Diamond’ doesn’t have the confidence to beat him.
Poirier Tweeted his interest in a welterweight showdown with Covington on July 30th but later revealed his coach has advised him against taking the fight.
McCarthy believes there is more to this story than meets the eye and suspects Covington may have gotten the better of Poirier during their previous training sessions at American Top Team.
“If they’ve offered [the Nate Diaz fight] twice to him, it means that Nate didn’t want it maybe?” McCarthy said on a recent episode of his podcast with co-host Josh Thompson (h/t Sportskeeda). “I don’t know if he accepted it. The one thing I will say is this – when he’s sitting there saying he doesn’t want Colby making money off him, that’s not the way to look at it. You’re making money off of Colby… They’ve been in the gym together, they know where they’re strong and where they’re weak against each other. Maybe he doesn’t have the confidence going against Colby.”
Poirier has also thrown Michael Chandler’s name into the mix alongside the aforementioned Covington and Diaz — but he probably matches up best with Diaz. The Louisianan is currently #2 in the UFC lightweight rankings and #7 in the UFC men’s pound-for-pound rankings.
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