UFC on Fox 30 features a pivotal lightweight title eliminator as #3 ranked Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier (23-5-1NC MMA, 15-4-1NC UFC) takes on former lightweight champion and #4 ranked contender Eddie ‘The Underground King’ Alvarez (29-5-1NC, 4-2-1NC UFC) this weekend.
The only ‘No Contest’ on Poirier’s impressive record was against Alvarez when they met last time at UFC 211 in May last year courtesy of an illegal knee from Alvarez. Poirier has since stacked up an impressive run with finishes over former champ Anthony Pettis and former WSOF champ Justin Gaethje.
The stars were aligning for a rematch against Alvarez however the bout faced some negotiation problems due to Alvarez’s contract issues. Poirier in an interview with MMAWeekly explained how the fight nearly didn’t happen.
“He took a while and I was in limbo. I was like I’m not going to let this f–king guy affect my summer and my family,” Poirier told MMAWeekly. “Family wanted to go on vacation. I wanted to take my wife and my mom and my daughter on vacation and stuff like that. UFC offered me a trip to Asia with my wife to promote some stuff so I wasn’t just going to wait around for this guy to take the fight. I told everyone who was asking that I’d let them know in a week and I told the UFC that Eddie has a week to say yes and I’m out.
“He didn’t say ‘yes’ so I was out. I’m not going to wait around. It’s affecting my personal life now.”
“I gave them seven days and they might have come back around 12 days. I told them no,” Poirier said. “My management passed the word along. I told them I was serious. Of course I wanted to fight and I wanted this fight but it’s a ‘yes’ if you all tell me within that week and I wanted to stick by my word.”
Poirier is however happy that the bout is finally going to happen.
“We worked it out,” Poirier slyly added. “Details don’t need to be talked about but now we’re fighting.”
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