Justin Gaethje believes Dustin Poirier would rather walk away than fight him again

UFC lightweight contender Justin Gaethje believes that divisional rival Dustin Poirier would rather walk away than fight him again.

Gaethje defeated Michael Chandler on the UFC 268 main card to likely become the next man to fight for the belt at 155lbs, which is currently owned by UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira. Poirier and Oliveira meet next month in the main event of UFC 269, and Gaethje is hoping that he gets to face the winner of that matchup for the belt. However, he is unsure if Poirier would actually go ahead and fight him again.

Although Poirier has a previous win over Gaethje by KO from 2018, it’s Gaethje’s opinion that he wouldn’t fight him again, as he told MMAFighting.com in an interview.

“I hope Oliveira wins. A part of me thinks, after I fought Dustin Poirier, I went outside and I took 100, 200 pictures and I felt great, not one thought or emotion from that fight am I scared to experience again. I know for a fact when Dustin Poirier has to step in there with me again, he’s going to remember and constantly be analyzing that night. He was not out taking pictures. He was probably in the most pain of his f*cking life,” Gaethje said.

“If he doesn’t land the shot in the first round, he knows he’s going to have to go through that again. If he beats Charles Oliveira, I don’t know if he fights me. I think he just walks away, calls it good. So I kind of hope Charles Oliveira wins so I get to fight him March, April, May. If Dustin Poirier wins, I’m going to have to really entice him to f*cking get in there again.”

Do you think we will see the rematch between Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier or do you agree with Gaethje that Poirier would rather walk away than fight him again?