Former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier has cleared the air regarding the donation issue with Charles Oliveira following UFC 269.
Just minutes after getting submitted by Oliveira for the lightweight title, Poirier and Oliveira embraced and Poirier promised to donate $20,000 to a charity of Oliveira’s choice.
But a few weeks after the initial donation promise, Oliveira revealed that he hadn’t received it and some began to question whether or not Poirier’s promise was legitimate.
During a recent interview with InsideFighting, Poirier provided clarity regarding the situation and said the initial confusion has been resolved.
“So, I ended up getting in touch with Charles and his team,” Poirier said. “We had some back and forth, talking about where the money was gonna go. Right after the fight, he had sent me his personal banking information. I was like, ‘I have a non-profit, I can’t directly deposit $20,000 from my non-profit into your bank account.’ I’m sure the translation, he was probably using a translator to text me back, that’s how we were speaking, on WhatsApp. All the stuff probably got mixed up, maybe, when I asked him about where the money would go and he sent his personal info.
“Now we got it resolved. So he’s looking for a charity and we’re also speaking to the UFC, the Brazilian department of the UFC, and we’re working with them. So $20,000’s going to somewhere.”
Poirier’s defeat to Oliveira was his second shot at the lightweight title after losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242. He would go on to earn back-to-back wins over Conor McGregor along with a unanimous decision win over Dan Hooker.
Poirier has hinted at a potential move to welterweight to face his adversary Nate Diaz. Formal negotiations haven’t materialized regarding a fight but both sides have expressed a profound interest in the matchup.
As for Oliveira, he will defend his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje later this year at UFC 274. It appears that any potential tension between him and Poirier regarding the promised donation to charity has diminished.
Who do you want to see Dustin Poirier fight next?
