At 35 years old, Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier has nearly accomplished all feats inside of the UFC Octagon, with just one box left unchecked, the undisputed UFC title.
In pursuit of the title, Poirier will have to fight down in the rankings at UFC 299 against Benoit “God of War” St. Denis to get back in the win column and preserve himself as a top three lightweight and contender.
This state of Poirier’s career leaves little room for error when keeping title hopes in mind, and it was assumed he was further than one win away from a shot at gold against current lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, but that might not be the case.
Yesterday, Gilbert “Durinho” Burns released a video on his YouTube channel, offering a snippet inside the world behind the scenes, and the 25 second clip had much to offer in terms of speculation.
The meat of the video depicts Poirier, and Islam Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz having a brief conversation, which is highlighted by two sentences from Islam’s manager:
“Get this win. Fight Islam in June.”
To no surprise, Poirier followed up the request with “let’s go, come on.”
If this is a legitimate request, the stakes of the Poirier vs St. Denis bout have increased significantly. A win for Dustin could rocket ship him right into a title shot, for potentially the final time. For St. Denis, this should serve as leverage to call for a fight with Islam if he is able to take the victory and assume a top three-to-five ranking.
Currently, the UFC schedule calls for two cards at the tail end of June, a Fight Night card in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on June 22 and UFC 303 in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 29.
Should the dominoes fall in favor of Poirier, a fight with Islam Makhachev in June would give either fighter approximately fifteen weeks to turnaround and face the champion.
There are many variables at play, but if nothing else, fans should feel excitement to see Islam’s manager trying to get traction on a fight for the champion. Makhachev has been out of action since his October KO over Alexander “The Great” Volkanovski, and is looking for his first defense against a true lightweight.
UFC 299 and 300 is full of top lightweight bouts, such as Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira vs Arman Tsarukyan, Mateusz “Gamer” Gamrot vs Rafael Dos Anjos, Justin “The Highlight” Gaethje vs Max “Blessed” Holloway, and the aforementioned Poirier vs St. Denis. In the coming weeks we should see more clarity in the division regarding who has claim the number one contenders spot.
