Dustin Poirier refuses to retire ‘on a loss’ and names ideal opponents for next UFC fight

Dustin Poirier has clarified his UFC future, revealing that he will not retire despite his third loss in a title fight.

Poirier was submitted by lightweight champion Islam Makhachev in June, following submission losses to Charles Oliveira in 2021 and Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019.

After his defeat by Makhachev, Poirier acknowledged that his dream of becoming an undisputed UFC champion is likely over, leaving the former interim champion to ponder retirement.

Now, however, Poirier is planning to continue fighting – just with different goals.

“The shift needs to be internally, for what the motivation for fighting is,” the American, 36, said on the Anik & Florian podcast. “Because if it’s not about the world title, why am I fighting?

“And after the Islam fight, when I got back home, I thought: ‘Maybe this is it?’ A few weeks went by, injuries started hurting less and less post-fight, and I was like: ‘I’ve got to do this again.’

“I’ve never lost two in a row, I can’t leave this sport on a loss. But at the same time, I want to be 100 per cent in it if I’m going to do it again, because I don’t want to disrespect the sport. I honour this stuff, I do. I just want to do it right and get my hand raised and leave on my terms with a win.

“But that’s no guarantee. I could go back out there and somebody could whip my ass. That’s the thing.”

Poirier was scheduled to fight Nate Diaz in 2018 but the bout fell through, and Poirier has repeatedly called out his compatriot in the years since. In fact, Diaz remains on Poirier’s list of ideal opponents.

“The thing with Diaz is… I’m in contact with the UFC behind the scenes about my next moves all the time. We talk when I want to fight again, how bad are my injuries, things like that. And the last time I brought his name up, they didn’t want to talk about him, they didn’t want to do business.

“A lot of fans don’t know, behind the scenes he’s such a struggle to deal with that I think they just don’t want to do it anymore. But if it came around, if that was something that was a reality, I 100 per cent would take the fight right now, sign a contract today. And Nate knows that because I’ve done it a few times.”

Diaz left the UFC with a submission win over Tony Ferguson in 2022. The 39-year-old has since boxed twice, losing to Jake Paul last year but beating fellow UFC veteran Jorge Masvidal this month. In 2022, UFC president Dana White claimed that Diaz would be welcome back in the UFC someday.

Podcast host Jon Anik, a UFC commentator, proceeded to put forward the following names to Poirier: “Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor, Alexander Volkanovski, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway, Charles Oliveira, and Colby Covington.”

And Poirier responded, “100 per cent, for sure. If I do fight again and when I do fight again, it will be definitely one of those guys you just said.”