Dustin Poirier doesn't want to help Coby Covington 'make a dollar' but is open to fighting him
- Joe Hewlett
- 17 May 2022
Poirier is looking for a fight on July 30 after originally hoping to secure a showdown against Nate Diaz.
Dustin Poirier doesn't want to fight Colby Covington but if that's what it takes for him to fight on July 30 then he will.
In March, Covington defeated former team-mate Jorge Masvidal at UFC 272 in dominant fashion and then called out Poirier.
However, Poirier appeared not interested in the original call out but following his loss to Charles Oliveira for the lightweight title, and fight talks with Nate Diaz falling through, Poirier has now made a U-turn.
"I don't hate anyone, but if there was a line right before hate, Colby's standing right there," Poirier told
The MMA Hour
.
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) May 17, 2022
"I really dislike the guy, and I've been saying I don't want him to make a dollar off of fighting me, but they offered me him last week.
"It was either wait to the end of the year and fight for a No. 1 contender at lightweight, or fight in July, and that was the name that they gave me. So I was like, 'f**k it.'
"So that's not a call out of him. I'm not going out of my way. I don't want to fight the guy.
"I don't want him profiting anything off of me, but if they're not giving me a fight until the end of the year and this is what they're giving me, I've got to do what I've got to do. I fought in December.
"I don't want to sit in a holding pattern for 10-11 months. I'm healthy and I want to fight.
"I'm kind of pissed off at myself for saying I'd do it," added Poirier. "Not that I'm worried about the guy or his skill set or anything like that, it's that I don't want the fu**ing guy to prosper because I said yes to a fight with him.
"I don't want him to make a dollar off of anything that I've done or off of fighting me, period. But you get a glass of whiskey in you, they call you a couple days before, s**t happens and then you fight. So f**k it.
"At least, if it does happen, it's not a fight where I'm going to take any damage. This fu**ing guy."
Poirier admits he has a huge 'dislike' for Covington and while it's not a mega-fight against Diaz or Conor McGregor, he has a chance to prove himself in at welterweight - a third weight division after featherweight and lightweight.
"He's everything I dislike about mixed martial arts," Poirier said. "He's a cartoon character. Everything he does if for any extra click, view, none of it's authentic. He can wrestle.
"I've been around him for years. I know him from being in the gym with him since 2012, 2013-ish, but he's just a fake, a phony...
"Colby knows what's up. He's knows what's happened in the gym. I'm not a scrap and tell kind of guy - I won't say what happened, but he knows what happened those years in the gym.
"At the same time, I do [too]. He knows he's taken me down and rode me out rounds, but he also knew a couple (of) times what happened to him. It is what it is. I don't want my family to go through that but also I want to fight. Give me a fight."
On hopes of fighting Diaz, Poirier said: "We'll see what happens.
"Hopefully the UFC calls and says, 'We've got Nate under control. Let's do it.' Hopefully, that happens and then we could just have a real fighters fight, none of this showmanship bulls**t that just lies for clicks and views."
