UFC star Dustin Poirier plans to retire after his loss to lightweight champion Islam Makhachev; however, he feels he still has one fight left in him.
Poirier has had time to rethink his retirement and believes he still wants time one more chance in the octagon. The fight has had a good career run and has faced elite fighters like Justin Gaethje, Dan Hooker, and many others. Although there is a possibility of a trilogy fight with Justin Gaethje after their BMF belt battle at UFC 291, Hooker wants another chance to face Poirier. The two had their first bout in 2022, where Hooker lost via unanimous decision.
Regardless of the fight being four years ago, Hooker is still willing to give the rematch a shot. However, Poirier has a contrary opinion. In a recent tweet, Poirier said, “You Don’t really want that”.
Although Hooker is currently in line for a title shot and is fresh off a spectacular win over Mateusz Gamrot, Poirier has another opponent in mind. Poirier hinted about a trilogy fight with Gaethje to settle their score. Many, including Thompson and McCarty, applauded Poirier for his bravery and desire to take on the challenge.
In a recent episode of the Weighing In podcast, Thompson and McCarty discussed Poirier and praised him for embracing a tougher opponent.
“The fact that Dustin’s calling for the fight means that this guy motivates him enough to say, ‘You know what? Let’s run this back; let’s do it a third time; let’s give the fans what they want,’” Thomson said. “I’ve never looked at Dustin as someone who wants the easy road; he’s not that guy.”
“If you’re going to look at it from a certain point, you know everybody he was fighting was either a champion or a former champion,” McCarthy said. “We’re talking top of the food chain with every guy that he was fighting, and it’s just amazing. You know, I think it was from the Dan Hooker fight; I could be wrong, but I mean, just crazy who that guy has been fighting. You can’t ask anything more from a fighter than what you get from Dustin Poirier.”
Despite his desire to retire, there’s no denying Poirier’s impact in MMA. “The Diamond” has had an impressive career run and remains one of the top PPV draws in MMA.
