Dustin Poirier Claims UFC Doesn’t Want to Do Business With Nate Diaz

While Dustin Poirier (30-9) appears interested in fighting Nate Diaz (21-13), he believes the Ultimate Fighting Championship won’t do business with the younger Diaz brother.

After parting ways with the UFC in 2022, Diaz (21-13) has been dabbling in boxing, dropping a controversial split decision against Jake Paul before bouncing back with a unanimous decision win over fellow UFC alum Jorge Masvidal last weekend. Meanwhile, Poirier (30-9) is at a crossroads in his career after having come up short in his third and likely final lightweight title bid against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 last month.

While he has been contemplating retirement, Poirier admits that it’s difficult for him to stay away from fighting. UFC color commentator Jon Anik recently suggested Diaz as a potential opponent that would make sense for Poirier, financially and otherwise. “The Diamond” has also been teasing a fight with Diaz by retweeting multiple posts about the potential matchup.

However, Poirier sincerely doubts the chances of a Diaz fight coming to fruition. Poirier claims to have come close to fighting Diaz on multiple occasions, with the fight falling through each time. The last time it happened, the UFC allegedly told Poirier that they were no longer interested in business dealings with the popular Californian.

“I don’t think the UFC is going to do business with him,” Poirier said on The MMA Hour. “I don’t think so. Last time I spoke to the UFC about Nate, it was another one where this was close to happening; it was almost done and then it fell apart again. Which it’s done a bunch of times, me and Nate. And then they told me like, ‘We don’t want to do business with him anymore.’”

Poirier and Diaz were slated to fight at UFC 230 in 2018 before “The Diamond” was forced out due to a hip injury. However, Poirier claims he accepted many more offers to fight Diaz, including a short-notice opportunity to save the UFC 279 card.

Diaz’s last UFC fight was originally supposed to be against Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 279 in September 2022. However, the main card saw a massive reshuffle after Chimaev missed weight by a whopping 7.7 pounds. Chimaev went on to fight Kevin Holland at catchweight and Diaz took on Tony Ferguson , whom he submitted in the fourth round.

Poirier claims he accepted a call on 24 hours’ notice to replace Chimaev against Diaz at UFC 279, albeit it never materialized.

“I even accepted a fight against him on 24 hours’ notice. I was going to fly to Vegas and weigh in the same day the night of the Khamzat stuff… It’s a crazy story. Mike Brown flew in on Thursday to Louisiana just to come visit. We went out to dinner, we went to sleep. Friday morning I wake up, my phone is like bunch of missed calls, bunch of text. I was like, ‘Something’s happened, what’s going on?’ It’s my management, Hunter [Campbell], everybody from the UFC reaching out and say, ‘Hey he’s not going to make weight, can you make 170?’… I’m Facetiming with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, stepping on the scale so that I can show them I can make weight safely… I started cutting weight and everything. Man, I have accepted so many fights against Nate: he can say what he wants, but the UFC knows the truth.”