After flirting with retirement for the past month, Dustin Poirier is seemingly chomping at the bit to get back into the UFC Octagon and has outlined a list of potential opponents he would like to fight next.
Following his loss to UFC lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev, at UFC 302 this past June, Dustin Poirier admitted that he was highly considering hanging up the gloves and walking away from the sport once and for all.
Despite that, ‘The Diamond’ has recently been locked into beef on X with fellow lightweights, Michael Chandler and Conor McGregor.
Dustin Poirier lists his potential next opponent as he talks potential retirement fight
The former UFC interim lightweight champion has recently flirted with the idea of finally fighting Nate Diaz, even if it’s in boxing.
Diaz returned to the win column this past weekend by exacting revenge on Jorge Masvidal in the boxing ring, picking up the majority decision win. Poirier and Diaz were scheduled to fight each other under the UFC banner in 2018, but it didn’t come to fruition.
However, the Louisianan doesn’t think the UFC will do business with the Stockton brawler again because of his decision to leave and try his hand at boxing.
“The thing with Diaz is… the last time I brought his name up they didn’t want to talk about him, they didn’t want to do business (with him). A lot of fans don’t know behind the scenes he’s such a struggle to deal with that I think they just don’t want to do it anymore,” Poirier stated on the Anik and Florian Podcast.
With that, UFC commentator, Jon Anik, asked ‘The Diamond’ who he believes his next opponent will be.
“Do you believe your next opponent will come out of this batch of names, Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor, Alexander Volkanovski, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway, Charles Oliveira (and) Colby Covington?” Anik asked.
“100%” Poirier answered sharpishly. “Yeah, if I do fight again, and when I do fight again it’ll definitely be one of those guys you just said.”
Dustin Poirier’s next fight will be with a switch of motivation
Up to this point, the 35-year-old’s motivation has always been to chase undisputed UFC gold but he now knows that goal is unattainable.
And because of that, Poirier knows that he needs to switch his mindset ahead of his next fight as he is no longer chasing the title.
“The shift (in mindset) needs to be internally about what the motivation for fighting is, because if it’s not about the world title, why am I fighting? And after the Islam fight after I got back home I thought maybe this is it.
“A few weeks went by, injuries started hurting less and less post-fight and I was like I gotta do this again. I’ve never lost two in a row, I can’t leave this sport on a loss but at the same time, it’s like, I want to be 100% in it if I’m gonna do it again because I don’t want to disrespect this sport.
“I just want to get my hand raised and leave this sport on a win,” Poirier finished.
Poirier requires surgery on the broken nose he suffered on June 1, however, he admitted that if a fun fight pops up, he would be willing to push his surgery back and compete before the end of the year.
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