Back at UFC 272, Colby Covington (17-3) dominated Jorge Masvidal over the course of five rounds and won an extremely lopsided decision. After the fight was over, “Chaos” took to the microphone and there was one man that he wanted to face next.
That man is former interim UFC lightweight champion Dustin Poirier (28-7, 1 NC). Covington used to train at American Top Team along with Masvidal and Poirier. However, after a nasty split from the team, things have become personal between Covington and his former teammates.
None more personal than Masvidal, but there has been some heat with Poirier. Poirier has said in the past that he wouldn’t take a fight with Covington because he doesn’t want Covington making a single dime off the sacrifices that Poirier has made in his career.
However, Dustin Poirier wants a fight. He’s been asking the UFC for a fight and he told Ariel Helwani on the MMA Hour that he UFC just offered him a fight for July. The fight they offered him was for July 30th and it was a matchup against Colby Covington.
Will the UFC book the fight?
Poirier did tell Helwani that the fight against Covington is not his first choice. His first choice would be a fight with Nate Diaz which is also the fight that Diaz wants. However, Diaz and the UFC are at a standstill in terms of their contract negotiations.
Diaz has one fight left on his current deal with the UFC. The promotion has been trying to book him against Khamzat Chimaev which is an awful matchup for Diaz. My feeling is that they are trying to book him against Chimaev because Diaz has indicated that he’s not resigning with the UFC.
If Diaz does sign a new deal, I would expect the Poirier fight to come together quickly. Something still tells me that this is the most likely scenario. However, the Covington fight is interesting and one I didn’t think Poirier would express interest in.
The fight would definitely sell and would be another installment of Covington versus American Top Team.