Dustin Poirier Reveals ‘Dream Opponent’ for Potential Boxing Debut

Dustin Poirier can’t let his teammate Jorge Masvidal have all the fun in boxing.

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Despite being one of the best boxers in UFC history, the 35 year-old Poirier has yet to step into the boxing ring, instead spending his days in the Octagon where he has found great success in MMA. The former UFC interim lightweight champion never reached undisputed status unfortunately, having his career put into question after a third-straight title fight loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 in June.

Contemplating retirement for a month or so, Poirier is now adamant that he’ll fight again – campaigning for a “last dance” of sorts against whoever it may be.

“See what offers I get. See what excites me. Just go with the flow,” Poirier told MMA Knockout’s Zain Bando regarding his fighting future.

One enticing option for Poirier post-UFC could be a crossover into the sport of boxing, given the fact that inaugural BMF Champion Masvidal fought red-hot free agent Nate Diaz last weekend in a sold-out boxing event. Still signed to the UFC, Masvidal was given special permission by the promotion to compete in a total of three boxing matches, leaving the door open for Poirier to do the same, if the UFC is on board with the idea, that is.

“I wanna do one of those,” Poirier said of a potential move to boxing on ‘The MMA Hour‘. “I would love to. That would be fun and exciting…. I will [ask], let’s go, call them up.

“Just a change of speeds. Different training camp. Just something different. I’ve been doing MMA awhile and I still love the training camps and love fighting, but to go to purely boxing, the whole training camp would be a lot less wearing on my body. No wrestling, no jiu-jitsu. It would be boxing, running, swimming. That’s fun stuff.”

When asked about who’d he like to take on, “The Diamond” says the opponent could be “anybody”, but his top choice would have be someone he was booked to face, but never fought… and that’s former UFC superstar Nate Diaz.

“I’d box Nate,” Poirier revealed who his “dream opponent” in boxing is. “Either [in boxing or MMA], I’d rather [fight] Nate in boxing, I think.”

Poirier was scheduled to meet Diaz at lightweight many moons ago at UFC 230 in November 2018, but in a career-first, the former interim champ had to withdraw from the fight due to a hip injury. Diaz later criticized Poirier for pulling out with the injured “Diamond” returning fire.

This wasn’t the only time Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier came close to fighting with Poirier also revealing on ‘The MMA Hour’ that he got the call to fight Diaz on a day’s notice at UFC 279 after it was known that Khamzat Chimaev was unable to make the welterweight limit for opponent Diaz. However, the bout never came into fruition with Tony Ferguson stepping up to fight Diaz in an unexpected audible.

Would you like to see Dustin Poirier finally settle the score with Nate Diaz – in the boxing ring of all places?

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