Despite obvious interest from both sides, it seems that a matchup pitting Nate Diaz vs Dustin Poirier in a battle of UFC mega stars is unlikely to happen.
Poirier (28-7) and Diaz (20-13) have been publicly barking at each other ever since a planned bout between the two fell through in 2018. Whenever they have had their fight schedules open, a trade of taunts using their Twitter fingers usually occurs. However, finally making the fight actually happen seemed to ramp up in the last couple of weeks, following “The Diamond’s” recent title fight loss to lightweight king Charles Oliveira at UFC 269.
Diaz only has one fight left on his current UFC contract and has made it known he wants to finish out his deal as soon as possible. But he also prefers big-name competition at welterweight in his next matchup. Yet a booking with one of the division’s top-15 talents has not been easy to secure since his UFC 263 loss to Leon Edwards in June.
Nate Diaz vs Dustin Poirier UFC 270 fight idea scrapped
However, following his December setback to Oliveira, Poirier suggested his days at 155-pounds are probably over and a move up to welterweight was likely if he were to continue fighting. Making a long-hoped-for matchup between him and Diaz seem as logical as ever considering their current standings as star talent outside serious title contention.
The two exchanged mean tweets and fight offers throughout December, and the pair seemed on board with being added to this month’s UFC 270 card in Anaheim, Calif. despite the event only being a few weeks away. Poirier even told legendary boxing trainer and ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas on a Tuesday edition of his podcast that he agreed to the bout and was just waiting on Diaz to finalize it.
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 because 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,” Poirier said [h /t MMAFighting]. “I said yes, now we’re waiting on him.
Everything seemed lined up for fans to get the fight they had hoped to see for close to four years. But then the Stockton native seemed to pour cold water on the notion with a Tuesday night tweet.
https://twitter.com/NateDiaz209/status/1478547455511830539
“I just talked to the UFC. I said wassup with the DP fight. I wanna fight ASAP. But they said Dustin sucks and they don’t want it. Sorry Dustin you suck. Hope to fight ASAP tho. Let’s do this. PS, Oliveira you suck too,” Diaz wrote.
Following the tweet, MMAFighting reached out to several sources about the booking, and stated, “despite preliminary talks, multiple people with knowledge of negotiations told MMA Fighting the bout will not be happening as of now.”
It is unclear why the matchup fell through even though both parties were very much interested in the fight. More than likely the money the UFC was willing to put up was not enough for either side to take on such a notable challenge in just a few weeks’ time.
Are you disappointed to know Diaz vs Poirier seems unlikely to ever happen?
