Former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier has accepted a fight with Nate Diaz on just weeks’ notice if Diaz wants it.
Poirier is coming off of his lightweight title loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 269. It was the second time in his career that he fell short of the lightweight title after losing previously to Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019.
But Poirier appears to already be thinking about what’s next in his UFC career and has recently alluded to a move to welterweight. Just days after the loss to Oliveira, Poirier named Diaz as the one opponent who would excite him for his next trip to the Octagon.
The two have gone back-and-forth on social media for years, stemming from their scheduled fight that fell apart in 2018. Poirier and Diaz have teased a potential fight for the start of 2022, and according to Poirier, he’s been issued an official bout agreement to make it happen.
Dustin Poirier Is Waiting For Nate Diaz To Sign The Contract
During a recent interview with Teddy Atlas, Poirier revealed that he’s received an offer to fight Diaz with a notice of just six weeks.
“Honestly – another thing that kinda got that flame going is a couple of days ago, I got a phone call – but I can’t talk about it,” Poirier said. “It’s a very short notice thing. Something I would hate to do is stack things against myself and take a fight on short notice, but, we’ll see what happens, man. I don’t want to give too much ‘cause I don’t know what I can say. No contract has been signed yet, but if this goes go through, I’m gonna take it. I said yes, now we’re waiting on him.” (h/t LowKickMMA)
It’s unclear if Diaz will ultimately agree to fight Poirier after saying that Poirier wasn’t worthy of fighting him. Diaz most recently fought Leon Edwards at UFC 263 and has been waiting for an opponent ever since for his return.
Assuming that Poirier is correct, it sounds like the Diaz fight has a 50-50 chance of actually coming to fruition. Now, we await Diaz’s response and whether or not he’ll sign off on the short-notice bout.
Do you think Dustin Poirier vs. Nate Diaz will happen in 2022?
