UFC star Dustin Poirier wants to fight again in the summer after his planned fight with Nate Diaz is seemingly off the table.
Poirier and Diaz had been calling out each other to fight since last year, but Diaz requested his UFC release this week after claiming the promotion has failed to find him an opponent. "I would like to request to be released from the UFC," he wrote.
"I apologise for asking online but you don’t give me a fight ASAP I got s*** to do."
He later added: "Motherf****** be crying cause they get dropped from the UFC [and] I can’t pay out this b****". Poirier now wants to move on from the fight and return to the octagon in July.
Replying to a fan on Twitter, he wrote of his return date: "Not sure yet.. hopefully somebody's getting it in July." Poirier's most recent bout came at UFC 269 last December when he lost out on the lightweight title to Charles Oliveira.
Poirier was scheduled to fight Diaz at UFC 230 in 2018, but he withdrew from the bout with a hip injury and it was never rescheduled. 'The Diamond' hinted at a move up to 170-pounds after his last fight, but it's unclear if he wants to fight at the new weight class in July.
A potential opponent for Poirier upon his return is former teammate Colby Covington. The pair have called each other out before and Covington thinks if Poirier wants to start a run at the welterweight belt he needs to go through him first.
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"It's about holding these guys accountable, I didn't have to use Dustin's name. He used my name in interviews to add value to his fights, if he wouldn't have used my name I never would have talked about him," Covington told Submission Radio.
"His coaches are saying that he's going to better welterweight than he was lightweight, so why is he trying to pick on the guy in the corner that has a lisp, that's mentally handicapped and crippled. Nate Diaz shouldn't even be fighting anymore.
"If Dustin Poirier wants to pick on the crippled dude that has a lisp, Nate Diaz, why don't you come and fight the man? I'm the number one guy in the division. If you want the title, you've got to go through me. I am the title."
