MIAMI – The dust barely has settled on Dustin Poirier’s dramatic knockout win in the UFC 299 co-main event, and already he’s right back in the title picture.
Poirier (30-8 MMA, 22-7 UFC) seldom has been outside title talk at lightweight for the past several years, but his upset win over Benoit Saint-Denis (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC), a Fight of the Night winner at UFC 299 at Kaseya Center in Miami, has someone close to the champion putting an early potential offer on the table.
Ali Abdelaziz, who manages 155-pound champ Islam Makhachev (25-1 MMA, 14-1 UFC), tweeted early Sunday that his client would consider Poirier as his next lightweight title defense.
“Dustin Poirier took a huge risk tonight and came out on top and looked amazing. Dustin vs @MAKHACHEVMMA in June especially since everyone else has fights. If the UFC is good with this then Islam would be game,” Abdelaziz tweeted, apparently on behalf of Makhachev.
Dustin Poirier took a huge risk tonight and came out on top and looked amazing. Dustin vs @MAKHACHEVMMA in June especially since everyone else has fights. If the UFC is good with this then Islam would be game.
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) March 10, 2024
Poirier’s stunning finish of Saint Denis put him back in the win column after a brutal head kick knockout loss to Justin Gaethje at UFC 291 in July 2023 for the manufactured “BMF” belt. The former interim lightweight champ lost a title unification bout to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019, then had a win over Dan Hooker and back-to-back finishes of Conor McGregor.
But a title shot against Charles Oliveira in late 2021 resulted in a submission loss. He bounced back less than a year later with a submission of former Bellator champ Michael Chandler, and the Saint Denis is a bounce-back from the Gaethje loss.
Makhachev is coming off back-to-back 2023 wins over former featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who twice moved up to try to become a two-division champion. Makhachev submitted Oliveira to win the title in October 2022.
His resume includes wins over Hooker, Bobby Green, Drew Dober and Arman Tsarukyan on his way to title contention and, ultimately, the belt.
One working theory was that the “BMF” winner at UFC 300 between Gaethje and Holloway would be in position to challenge Makhachev, and another contingent thinks Gaethje and Holloway never should have been paired up to begin with when there are bigger-picture things happening with the lightweight title potentially involved.
Gaethje is another of Abdelaziz’s clients. The UFC’s June pay-per-view is UFC 300 in Las Vegas, at which Gaethje fights Holloway. A Poirier title shot against Makhachev in June would mean that his one win over Saint Denis catapulted him past Gaethje and his wins over Rafael Fiziev and bonus-winning KO against Poirier, but such is the playing field with current bookings.
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.
