Paddy Pimblett has admitted that he may not qualify for the kind of fight Dustin Poirier wants before retiring this summer.
The British superstar is due to face Michael Chandler in the biggest fight of his career at UFC 314 next month, and had suggested Poirier as a potential opponent after the fact. But it seems that the former interim champion is focused only on older ‘legends’ for his retirement bout.
Now, Pimblett has admitted that he might have been wrong during their war of words. He understands that for his retirement Poirier will want a more winnable and exciting fight with an older and more established name, which will result in the Brit moving up the ranks regardless of the result.
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Paddy Pimblett admits Dustin Poirier may have been right in social media beef
Over the past month, even Nate Diaz had to get involved as Dustin Poirier shut down talks of a retirement fight with Paddy Pimblett. He wants a different type of opponent, which the surging scouser seems to agree with as a concept.
“He said something online,” Pimblett recalled in an interview with JNMedia UK. “Nate Diaz sad something about how I’d beat him and he started chatting ‘legends only’. Which, to be honest, I understand that. If he’s having one more fight he’s not going to want to fight me.
“He’s going to want to fight someone he thinks he can beat who he feels is going to get him some pay-per-view buys. So I understand that and if he retires after this fight then that’s sound, see ya later Dustin, I’ll move up another ranking.”
Paddy Pimblett branded Dustin Poirier an idiot in previous outburst
Pimblett’s tune has fairly drastically changed since a few weeks ago, when he branded Poirier an ‘idiot’ for only planning out one more fight. He reckoned that the potential for the pair to meet in the octagon could warrant one more.
However, Poirier insists it has to be a legend, with Pimblett telling ESPN Deportes that he feels it would be ill-adviced to leave a big opening where they could fight. “He said something about me the other day didn’t he?” Pimblett said at the time.
“He’s saying it’s legends only and he thinks Chandler will beat me so. I think he should have more than one fight, he looked good in his last fight. I don’t understand why you’d retire when you look good but you know, he must be an idiot. But yeah, I think I beat Dustin Poirier so I’d love to fight him.”
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