Daniel Cormier thinks a lightweight title eliminator bout between Dustin Poirier and Arman Tsarukyan should be pushed at UFC 300.
In his recent episode on the “DC & RC” podcast, Cormier explained why it would be logical to push the bout, especially for Tsarukyan, who recently made an impressive success over Beneil Dariush after knocking him out within the first 64 seconds of their fight.
According to Cormier, despite the fighter keeping mum about questions about fighting Tsarukyan, Poirier would not say “no” if given the chance to face the young fighter.
“Dustin Poirier is from Lafayette, Dustin Poirier ain’t scared of nothing, and Dustin Poirier is just a flat-out dog,” Cormier said. “So, if they give him that fight, he’ll take it. He’s a dog. Dustin Poirier is an absolute dog, so he’ll take the fight, and I think that will be a tremendous addition to UFC 300.”
Cormier recalled the Armenian-Russian fighter’s determination to reach the top for a title shot. Yet, given lightweight champ Islam Makhachev is expected to face Charles Oliveira for a title defense, the UFC commentator thinks the logical next fight for him is “The Diamond.”
“What I think should happen, I don’t know if it will happen, is if Islam fights sometime in the first quarter of the year, you put Tsarukyan on UFC 300 against Dustin Poirier,” Cormier explained. “Because Dustin said he wants to fight at that point. You know that UFC 300 is somewhere around April, you put him on UFC 300, and then maybe, maybe he comes back at the end of the year for that third fight that Makhachev said he wants. Now, you’ve got a guy that just beat one of the biggest names if he can get past Poirier.”
Tsarukyan, however, recently expressed a lack of interest in facing Poirier, explaining that the American’s defeat against Justin Gaethje makes the fight nonsensical. It can also be recalled that prior to his rise in the rank, Tsarukyan expressed disdain over Poirier, Gaethje, and Michael Chandler, saying the three only wanted to “fight each other and no one else.”
Apparently, that is no longer the situation now, especially after Tsarukyan officially entered the top 5. With Tsarukyan’s recent success and Poirier’s last defeat, a fight against the rising young star could be The Diamond’s ticket to redeem himself and his reputation.
