"That's just where I'm at right now."
TAMPA, Fla. – Dustin Poirier would fight again this year if an opportunity that made sense materialized, but the former interim UFC lightweight champ has no intention of competing just for the sake of it.
Poirier (25-6 MMA, 17-5 UFC), who is coming off a title-fight loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0 MMA, 12-0 UFC) last month at UFC 242, recently revealed he will soon travel to Colorado to see a hip specialist for a lingering issue. He doesn’t expect surgery, though, and sees his recovery only lasting a handful of weeks.
Theoretically Poirier could jump right back into training camp once he receives treatment, but he doesn’t see the need to rush unless it’s for something truly significant. That’s why “The Diamond” wasn’t particularly keen on Dan Hooker’s (19-8 MMA, 9-4 UFC) recent callout, even despite the surging contender offering to donate half of his fight purse to Poirier’s charity if the matchup came together.
“That doesn’t get me excited,” Poirier told MMA Junkie of a potential fight with Hooker. “I think it would be a fun fight. That guy is a good fighter, and he’s on the up, he’s been looking really good and beaten some tough guys. But it’s just not that exciting to me. I want there to be something more than just a fight. I want there to be something on the line.
“I know what he’s trying to do, and he’s doing a good job. He’s trying to make some noise and work his way up the ladder, and that’s what he’s doing. Hat’s off to him. But just right now to accept a fight, I want to be excited about it, and I’m not excited about that.”
So, what would get Poirier excited? He said there’s a number of possibilities. The frontrunner, of course, would be a rematch with Conor McGregor (21-4 MMA, 9-2 UFC), whom he suffered a knockout loss against in 2014 and has gone back-and-forth with over social media in recent weeks.
Outside of “The Notorious,” anyone in the top five at 155 pounds would get Poirier’s excitement level up, he said. Be it a rematch with Nurmagomedov, a rematch with Justin Gaethje (21-2 MMA, 4-2 UFC), a clash with Tony Ferguson (25-3 MMA, 15-1 UFC), or even Donald Cerrone (36-13 MMA, 23-10 UFC).
Poirier is not limiting himself to just lightweight fights, either. He said he walks around at roughly 184 pounds right now, and if the UFC came to him with a fight at welterweight that was logical, he would seriously consider that, too.
“I would give Gaethje a rematch if he wanted it, (or) Conor obviously,” Poirier said. “I would love to fight Tony. I’ve been wanting to fight Tony. A rematch with Khabib, that feels so far away looking at the whole picture, but if there was a fun fight at 170, I would go to 170. I wouldn’t stay there; it wouldn’t be my home. But I would definitely go there for a fight or two if it made sense.
“That’s just where I’m at right now. I want to have fights that are meaningful, I want to have fights that are exciting, and I want to be excited about the matchup. It all depends on the opponent and what they call me with. The when, the where, the who.”
