Dustin Poirier väntar tålmodigt på en värdig motståndare innan han väljer att stiga in i oktagonen igen.
Den tidigare interim-mästaren i lättvikt blev vid UFC 242 i september besegrad av Khabib Nurmagomedov genom submission. Han säger nu att han hoppas fightas igen i slutet av året men att det i så fall måste vara mot en stjärnmotståndare.
Poirier anser att denne kan vara tidigare fjäder och lättviktsmästaren Conor McGregor. De båda möttes år 2014 där irländaren besegrade Poirier via TKO. De senaste veckorna har de utbytt flera kommentarer via sociala medier och Poirier berättar nu för MMA Junkie att han tror matchen är möjlig:
I think it could happen; I don’t know how likely it is. I’m still at the top of the division. He’s ranked under me. If he wants to get back to the title, there’s only one way to do that is to fight. I’m the next guy in line, so I think it makes a lot of sense. My star has never been brighter, and people want to see Conor back, and I think it would be a huge fight, and it would be a huge pay-per-view. I just want a fight that’s going to make me excited. I’ve been doing this a long time and not that I’m not motivated, I just want to be excited about it.
Poirier säger att han numera är en mycket mognare fighter än när han blev besegrad av McGregor och att hans förluster, inte minst den senaste mot Nurmagomedov, hjälpt honom att växa som atlet:
I think I’ve learned a lot of lessons since thenI’ve got a lot better. It’ll be six years or so since we fought. I’ve tightened up a lot of things, got a lot smoother, I’m more defensively responsible now. After the Michael Johnson loss, I went back and really started to work on my defense, my range, my timing, and my understanding of distance. I think that really shows in the fights I’ve had since then. It’s the same thing with this Khabib fight. I wasn’t defensively responsible on the ground.
I’ve spent thousands of hours on the ground and had people try to choke my neck, and in the fight with Khabib I was more worried about trying to wear this guy down than I was about the danger of the potential of the chokes and the submissions. The alarm wasn’t going off like, ‘Emergency!’ I wasn’t defensively responsible. Not that I didn’t think I could get submitted, but I don’t get submitted very often honestly, and I think I can make these guys work and get up. But he’s a different animal, and I need to tighten up. Lesson learned.
Poirier säger dock att han inte blivit erbjuden någon match ännu av UFC.
