Dustin Poirier confirms he will end retirement and make UFC return on one condition

Dustin Poirier says he would make a fighting comeback to face Nate Diaz.

‘The Diamond’ laid down his gloves after losing to Max Holloway at UFC 318 last summer, having already confirmed that the bout would be his last.

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However, Poirier has since admitted he massively misses the fight game and has toyed with the idea of making a comeback, even returning to training at American Top Team three months ago.

The 37-year-old has continued to stir the pot this week by suggesting there’s no doubt he would return to face fellow UFC legend Diaz.

Poirier says he’d return to fight Diaz

“I still want to whip Nate’s a**,” Poirier said on the Deep Waters podcast.

“I’ll come back to fight him because [our fight] got away, and he lied, and the fans ran on his side.

“The UFC knew that I was going to fight Nate in our first matchup at Madison Square Garden.

“Nate was having trouble with his negotiation. I don’t know what was going on, but the UFC called me and said, ‘Hey, we want to keep you on the Madison Square Garden card, would you fight so and so?’

“They started offering me other people. I said, ‘Listen, if it’s not Nate, I’m not fighting, I’m going to go have my hip taken care of. If it’s Nate, I’ll fight.’

“It wasn’t Nate. They offered me Kevin Lee, they offered me a few other names. I said, ‘I’m going to have surgery on my hip.’

“But then Nate used that, and I was the fall guy, like the fight’s off because I pulled out.

“But I never pulled out, I just never wanted to fight anybody else but Nate.”

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How likely is Poirier vs Diaz?

The likelihood of Poirier coming back to fight Diaz is actually quite high.

After boxing Jake Paul and Jorge Masvidal, Diaz will make his MMA return on May 16 on the undercard of Ronda Rousey vs Gina Carano, live on Netflix under Paul’s Most Valuable Promotions (MVP) banner.

Diaz was in talks with Dana White and the UFC before signing with MVP, and has admitted that he still views himself as a UFC fighter.

Should he defeat Mike Perry, who is fully confident of getting the win in California, Diaz would be in a great position to make his UFC return with a fight against Poirier waiting for him.

Diaz has already named Poirier on a three-fight hit list before retiring, and it seems like the latter would be good to go if the offer is there.

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