Dustin Poirier says Nate Diaz fight at welterweight among future options

Dustin Poirier is confident he’ll eventually share the octagon with Nate Diaz and is willing to move up a weight class to boost the odds of it happening.

Poirier (27-6 MMA, 19-5 UFC) and Diaz (20-12 MMA, 15-10 UFC) were once scheduled to fight at UFC 230 in November 2018. It didn’t come to fruition, and since then they’ve taken the occasional shot at each other through interviews or on social media.

A potential fight between the two has become a hot topic again in the fallout of Poirier’s TKO victory over Conor McGregor at UFC 257, with Diaz calling out “The Diamond” in the immediate aftermath of the contest. Poirier has said bluntly numerous times that he would like to get his hands on Diaz, and he foresees a day it materializes.

Poirier said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast he’s even willing to appease Diaz’s situation by moving up to the welterweight division because in his estimation, it wouldn’t happen at lightweight.

“I think before I’m done fighting I’m going to fight 170,” Poirier told Rogan. “I’ll go up to 170 and fight Nate. For sure. I do (think that fight is interesting).”

In addition to Diaz being one of the most high-profile names in the sport, Poirier said there’s a touch of ill will to settle because of how everything unfolded with their canceled UFC 230 showdown.

Both men have two different versions of the story. Diaz claims Poirier bailed out of the fight with an injury, but Poirier said he was relayed information and is of the belief Diaz had no intention of competing against him on the card.

Poirier is confident his side is accurate.

“(I want to fight him) because of the way it fell apart,” Poirier said. “Me and him were supposed to fight in Madison Square Garden, and I kind of was the fall guy. He gets to point and say I pulled out of the fight, and I did. I went to get stem cells done on my hip, but I was going to go through with the fight. I was going to go through a camp and fight him and then they started offering me other replacement opponents. Nate was playing games with the UFC, the UFC started offering me opponents, and I said, ‘Look, guys, if this is happening, I’m just going to go get my hip taken care of.”

The brunt of Poirier’s focus appears to be on booking a trilogy fight with McGregor. The Diaz option lingers, though, and if for some reason he doesn’t fight McGregor again next, he said the door is open.

“It’s either going to be (the McGregor trilogy) or Nate Diaz, I think,” Poirier said. “He’s a guy I’ve always wanted to fight.”