UFC lightweight Dustin Poirier has admitted that he wants “big fights, fun fights” on The MMA Hour. Although Poirier seemed open recently to the prospect of facing elite lightweight contender Beneil Dariush – who has gone largely unnoticed despite his eight-fight winning streak and #4 ranking in the division – he is now dismissing the fight as “not super exciting”.
When asked what’s next for “The Diamond” after his barnstormer against Michael Chandler at UFC 281, Poirier was unsure.
Poirier Dismisses Dariush
“Big fights. Fun fights. I don’t know, man. I completed the violence triangle — finished Gaethje, finished Eddie, finished Chandler. There’s a bunch of fights that would be crazy matchups, I just don’t know a name right now.”
When asked about Dariush, Poirier answered: “Not really, honestly. No disrespect to Beneil. Great fighter and he did it the right way. He’s a very respectful guy, hard worker, and he goes in there and handles business, and I respect that. I’ll watch when he fights. When we just talked about the other names I’ve fought recently, that one’s not super exciting when I think about it.”
Poirier explicitly wants “Fight of the Year” honors. “I want those, because those are going to be the fun fights, the crazy fights, potential ‘Fight of the Year’ type of fights.
But those are also the fights that give me those butterflies in the stomach everyday, or when the contract comes through, and I see his name across from it. I’ve been watching [Chandler] a long time in Bellator, and I know some guys he beat. He’s very explosive, and that danger — it’s always the unknown, no matter how prepared you are.
But when you go out there and you’ve got a guy of that caliber, who can finish the fight in a second and hit you with shots, cover distance, a lot of things he does are very dangerous.”
Beneil Dariush is an elite fighter with a stunning resume, but is not as widely recognized as Poirier, or any of Poirier’s recent opponents. Poirier pointed out that the presence of a new champion, a year after Poirier’s own loss to then-champ Charles Oliveira belt, “opens up doors”.
“It opens up doors. It makes new matchups and things like that, but I always knew there was a path back to the belt, even if Charles had the belt. I can do anything I put my mind to. I knew I could climb the mountain again, it was just, do I want to go through the killers and do I want to fight three, four more times to put myself in position again. I’m taking this one fight at a time. Not retirement talk or anything like that, but I’ve been doing this so long and been so high and so low on it, it’s just one fight at a time.”
What do you think Dustin Poirier should do next? Let us know in the comments.
