As Mcgregor would say, a fight with him is like winning the lottery. He is not wrong, a fight would him would guarantee the biggest payday as he generates huge PPV numbers. Look at Nate Diaz’s career, after a win against Mcgregor they had a rematch where Diaz even got a bigger fight purse and establish himself as a PPV star as well.
Obviously, Dustin wants to fight Mcgregor for the pay but not only that he also wants to exact his revenge from the first loss. He even indicated that the Mcgregor loss made him an even better fighter. So what did Dustin Poirier do after his loss to Conor Mcgregor?
It was not the easiest path to the title for Poirier as he had ups and downs in his career but he persevered a lot and always wanted to get better. Poirier decided that it would be best to move up to the lightweight division for his career. It eventually paid off.
He went on a four-fight win streak with wins over Joseph Duffy who has a win with Mcgregor. He had gained a lot of confidence but then had a minor setback. He lost against Michael Johnson who was known to have fast hands in boxing. A minor setback but Poirier went back to the drawing boards to learn from his mistakes.
After his loss, he went on a streak that was most important for his legacy. He beat a lot of top contenders. He has wins over Anthony Pettis and Justin Gaethje who are big names in the lightweight division.
He had two matches against Eddie Alvarez who just lost his belt against Mcgregor. The first encounter was a No Contest, so they eventually led to a rematch. In the second match, Poirier eventually settled the rivalry which led to an interim fight.
At that time the UFC wanted to book Tony Ferguson vs Dustin Poirier for the interim fight but Ferguson refused as he was already an interim prior and did not lose it but was stripped. Max Holloway stepped in to fight Poirier which was not easy has Holloway was on a long win streak and then featherweight champion.
Poirier landed bombs in the first round that got Holloway wobbled. The fight was a back and forth where Poirier got the better of the fight. After winning the interim belt, he was then scheduled as the title challenger for Khabib Nurmagomedov. Unfortunately, Khabib out grappled him to a submission choke.
Now that Poirier has lost against the champion, he was scheduled to face rising top contender Dan Hooker. It was a test of whether he still belongs in the top 5 or not, there were moments that Hooker almost finished Poirier but he showed his granite chin and heart that he will never back down. Poirier got better in the later rounds while Hooker gassed where he won via unanimous decision.
With Khabib retiring, the UFC is looking to make big lightweight fights. Conor Mcgregor wanted to fight Poirier as he is a southpaw boxer, it can help him prepare for a potential fight with Manny Pacquiao. One of the reasons the fight was made was because of a potential boxing match with Pacquiao and that the UFC needs an important lightweight title contender fight.
