Dustin Poirier: “Nate Diaz was being hard to deal with on UFC 230 negotiations”
UFC 230 was suppose to be one of the biggest nights of Dustin Poirier’s UFC career, as he was originally scheduled to face returning fan favorite Nate Diaz, in a much anticipated fight in the UFC’s 155 pound division.
Unfortunately now for Poirier, the fight is no longer going to happen as he sustained an injury.
Though it was the injury that led the UFC to cancel this fight, Poirier says the bout was already headed in a downward spiral during the initial fight negotiations.
The reason being, in Poirier’s words, was because Nate Diaz was very hard to deal with.
“We don’t even have enough time to talk about all the times it was changed,” Poirier said recently on The MMA Hour (transcript via MMA Fighting). “The fight was on, it was off, it was just crazy, there was a lot of crazy stuff going on.”
According to Poirier, Diaz’s team had over-negotiated the fight, even going as far as changing the stipulations and their demands various times.
“They wanted to switch it to five rounds, man, it was just so messed up dude,” he said. “Nate was being hard to deal with, I believe. Every weight class they offered it at 155 and he wanted 160 and I agreed to that. He kind of negotiated himself out of a main-event spot. They offered us the main event, I accepted, Nate over-negotiated, they lost the main event, it was just back-to-back days of him trying to have his way, honestly.”
While Dustin Poirier is no doubt devastated that the bout with Diaz squandered, he’s not as frustrated as some fans are thinking he should be, reminding them he was not going to make any extra cash off the fight and simply saw it as a major opportunity.
“A lot of these fans are blowing me up on social media saying you blew an opportunity, your big payday and stuff like that, they don’t understand how contracts work,” he explained. “I don’t get PPV points to fight Nate Diaz. I don’t know what anyone thinks is going on here, but, I took this fight not because it was a big-money fight, but because it was a big opportunity. It’s a huge headache with all the stuff that he was playing.”
With his UFC 230 bout now officially scrapped, Poirier is ready to move along and do whatever is needed to prove that he indeed deserves a crack at the UFC lightweight championship.
In that regard, he says he is willing to reaccept and renegotiate a fight with Nate Diaz in the future, but at the same time is looking into other options as well.
“I have my eyes on everybody man, honestly,” Poirier said. “Like I said after my last fight, I want big fights, my goal is to be the world champion. So whatever fight makes sense. I felt like this Nate fight makes sense. If the UFC can get him to play ball, maybe we’ll do it, if not, we’ll see what shakes out, man and what’s next, but I need big fights.”
“Like I said, so much stuff went on behind the scenes, even if everything went smooth, I’m not sure if this fight would have even went through with this guy,” Poirier opined. “But if the UFC wants it, I’m down. If they can make it happen, I’m down.”
What do you believe could next for Dustin Poirier in the UFC?
