Dana White suggests Dustin Poirier negotiated himself out of Tony Ferguson fight, ‘The Diamond’ responds

UFC President Dana White suggested on Tuesday that Dustin Poirier had negotiated himself out of a fight with Tony Ferguson.

Earlier this month it was reported that a massive lightweight fight between Poirier and Ferguson would serve as the co-headliner of October’s UFC 254 pay-per-view event.

However, shortly following that news Dustin Poirier revealed that negotiations for a potential fight with ‘El Cucuy’ had broken down and thus he would not be competing this October.

UFC boss Dana White was questioned about the failed negotiations for Poirier vs. Ferguson during tonight’s DWCS 33 post-fight news conference and suggested that ‘The Diamond’ had talked himself out of the fight.

“Listen, I like Dustin,” White told reporters on Tuesday (via MMA Junkie). “I’m not going to sit up here and say anything negative about Dustin, he’s a great kid. I don’t know if it was he didn’t want to fight in Abu Dhabi or what his deal was – he didn’t want to fight.”

Dana White continued:

“Listen, there’s a lot of different ways to turn down a fight. Negotiating yourself out of one is one of the ways you can do it. So for whatever reason, he didn’t want to take this fight. Only he knows that. I don’t see Tony not accepting the fight.”

Image: Dustin Poirier on Instagram

Dustin Poirier would respond to White’s comments shortly thereafter in a text message to MMAJunkie.

“I do want that fight,” Poirier stated. “Simple and plain, I want to fight Tony. I like the match-up.”

‘The Diamond’ returned to the win column in June when he earned a thrilling decision victory over perennial division contender Dan Hooker.

As for Tony Ferguson, the former interim lightweight champion recently suffered his first loss in eight years when he was TKO’d by Justin Gaethje at UFC 249.

What do you think of the comments made this evening by Dana White and Dustin Poirier? Share your thoughts in the comments section PENN Nation!

on September 15, 2020