Dustin Poirier explains why he spent so long without a fight

Dustin Poirier will return to the Octagon to rematch Justin Gaethje at UFC 291 following his impressive submission win against Michael Chandler last year.

The bout was awarded Fight of the Night – the eighth time The Diamond has been awarded that honour in his career. Having established himself as one of the most entertaining figures in the game, Dustin Poirier was asked on the MMA Hour why it took so long for him to book a fight.

“I’m not sure,” replied the Lousiana-native. “I guess at this level, the fights have to be right. And there’s less and less mountain tops when you get to a certain point. The guys that are available and the guys that make sense – sometimes it takes longer,” Dustin Poirier continued and added,

“Obviously at the beginning of my UFC career – every fight made sense because I needed to get some traction. Make some noise. Get wins. Now? I want title fights or I want the biggest fights that I can get.”

Sitting at #2 in the lightweight rankings, Dustin Poirier holds a significant position at 155lb. However, the former Interim lightweight champion says that he’s only been offered one fight aside from the rematch with Gaethje.

“The UFC were talking about a fight between me and Beneil (Dariush.) Dustin Poirier explained. “Since that talk – I haven’t been offered a fight. I haven’t been offered any of the fights when the guys got hurt and they switched the cards around – my phone hasn’t rang. I think they wanted to do this Gaethje fight.”

Dustin Poirier on why it took so long to get a fight.#TheMMAHour pic.twitter.com/LP3W5U6Beh

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) May 22, 2023

Dustin Poirier first fought  Gaethje in 2018 and won the bout via TKO in the third round. In classic fashion for both men, the match was a barnburner and earned Fight of the Night.

Given their respective reputations, more fireworks are expected when they run it back at UFC 291. The BMF belt will be on the line for the first time since it was introduced for Jorge Masvidal’s clash with Nate Diaz in 2019.

Dustin Poirier has gone 6-2 since the first encounter with Gaethje, ‘The Highlight’ has matched that. Which man will come out on top when they go to war in Salt Lake City this summer?