Dustin Poirier calls for a fight have finally been answered as Stephen Thompson has offered to fight the UFC star in July.
Poirier has been trying to book his next fight since losing out on the UFC lightweight title to Charles Oliveira last December. He was trying to fight Nate Diaz for months, but the fight was never scheduled and the promotion has since moved on from the booking.
'The Diamond' has been bulking up since his last fight as he prepares to make his welterweight debut. Poirier, who started his UFC career at 145-pounds, now has an opponent after agreeing to fight former title challenger Stephen Thompson.
“155 or 170 anyone pull up July 30th,” Poirier wrote on Twitter. “International call out. Get a deal done.” Thompson then responded: “Hey Dustin Poirier I’m down to scrap! July 30th Let’s go! Respectfully."
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Thompson has lost his last two UFC appearances, most recently being outwrestled by Belal Muhammad last December. The accomplished kickboxing world champion hasn't won a fight since he outpointed Geoff Neal in December 2020.
Poirier won back-to-back fights against Conor McGregor before he was submitted by Oliveira at UFC 269. It marked Poirier's second chance at undisputed lightweight gold, having missed out on the title when he was tapped out by Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2019.
Top lightweight Michael Chandler was recently mocked by Poirier for avoiding a fight with him. Chandler, who called for a fight with McGregor at 170-pounds, said he is uninterested in fighting Poirier because of his actions when the former Bellator champion signed with the UFC.
“I have no interest in fighting Dustin, honestly,” Chandler said on The MMA Hour. "To be quite honest, I think he’s a great dude, I like him for the sport. But I also think I was completely disregarded and pushed aside whenever I came into the organisation.
“He completely disregarded me, he completely acted as though I didn’t deserve to be where I was. Maybe it’s a little bit more of a personal issue, but I also think Dustin… is Dustin a draw?” “I guess he is ranked number two now.
"He’s kind of just stayed at number two and I don’t know how active he’s gonna be. I did see that he tweeted that I was saying everybody else’s name but his as if I didn’t want to fight him because of technical reasons or whatnot. But I forgot about him, to be honest with you."
