Dustin Poirier is over the moon with his career-defining win over Conor McGregor just a little over a week ago. However, Poirier has not yet decided his next move till now. But one thing that sits atop of his head right now is being the undisputed UFA lightweight champion.
The Diamond is a former interim UFA lightweight champion and with Khabib Nurmagomedov out of the equation with his retirement scene and with the American standing with a two-match win streak, he wants to be the only option when UFC decides to dish out the title belt.
“Who else has put the résumé together that I have in my last six, seven fights, whatever it has been?” Poirier told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani on Monday. “Also beating Conor, a two-weight world champion, adds another world champion to the list of guys I’ve taken out. … I think I’m most deserving to be in a title fight out of all these guys.”
The American MMA fighter feels that his fight against McGregor should be the fight for the lightweight already. Poirier feels that he is the champion right now and is on the high. However, McGregor’s John Kavanagh told Helwani last week that the Irishman wants a best of three against Poirier.
McGregor defeated the American in 2014 and now with this win over McGregor Poirier has levelled the terms. The Diamond, therefore, agrees to a third match to settle the scores between him and McGregor.
“It’s 1-1,” Poirier said. “I knocked him out; he knocked me out. The rubber match, it does make sense.”
If things were normal Poirier would not even have to choose to fight with McGregor it would be a compulsion and it would be the fight for the title. But now he is not sure whether UFC will opt for McGregor after his TKO in a title fight. Also considering his form, the Irishman has only one win since 2016.
“I’m not sure if the UFC would do that,” Poirier said. “Why wasn’t that one for the belt? Politics? We’re chasing Khabib? What’s going on here? … I have no idea what direction [the UFC is going to] move in,” Poirier said.
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