HOUSTON – A potential UFC showdown with Colby Covington appears to be off the table for Dustin Poirier.
The former interim lightweight champion said he would never entertain an offer to fight former American Top Team teammate Covington in the octagon. But that doesn’t mean Poirier wouldn’t fight him at all. “The Diamond” told reporters at Saturday’s UFC 271 event in Houston that if he’d ever fought Covington it would be under a non-professional setting.
“I’ll never fight Colby in an octagon where there’s finances on the line,” Poirier explained. “If I fight Colby, we’re both going to jail. I’m going to jail. I’m not going to fight him in the octagon. He’s not going to make money off my career and what I’ve done.
“This is something different. You’ll never see me fighting Colby Covington in the UFC.”
Once teammates, Poirier and Covington haven’t been on good terms for several years now. Covington infamously was ousted from ATT after his trash talk ruffled feathers in the gym with many fighters.
Covington currently trains at MMA Masters in Miami and is scheduled to face former friend and ex-ATT teammate Jorge Masvidal in a heated grudge match in the UFC 272 main event March 5.
Poirier is hoping Masvidal pulls off the win.
“Jorge is a guy who I’ve been around the last 11 years,” Poirier said. “He’s helped me out with knowledge and insight to the game. He’s a pioneer of the sport. He was doing it way before it was cool. So guys like that, even if I wasn’t friends with him, I respect guys like that. …
“I’m rooting for Jorge, obviously. He’s a teammate, a friend and a part of me bumping out to lightweight back when was at 145. One day at the gym, sitting back, he said, ‘Dude, just do it. You’re not getting overwhelmed by the strength of me.’ That’s when he was still at 155. Jorge is just a good dude and I want to see him succeed.
“I know he’s working hard. I know Bo Nickal is down there at American Top Team. We have a lot of good wrestlers there, so he’s preparing his wrestling game. His fight IQ and skill is going to speak for itself in this fight. But it is fighting. I’m rooting for Jorge.”
