Nate Diaz To Dustin Poirier: I’m training to whoop your ass next

Headlining UFC 257 last night in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Poirier exacted his revenge against two-time foe, McGregor, stopping the 32-year-old in the second round via a barrage at the Octagon fence — becoming the first mixed martial artist to stop McGregor via strikes.

Implementing a masterful, technical performance for the two-round affair, Poirier immediately opened up with a series of calf kicks in the opening frame, before scoring a somewhat surprising single-leg takedown. Trading a couple of counter straights and hooks before the end of the round, McGregor likely scored the opening frame on many people’s scorecards.

Employing that nasty, debilitating calf kick once more in the opening exchanges of the second round, Poirier eventually backed McGregor up against the fence after it seems his southpaw lead leg had buckled, before unloading with a vicious combination, landing time and time again before a right hook sat McGregor to the canvas, with a subsequent ground-and-pound strike rendering him unconscious. With the victory, Poirier avenged his 2014 first-round knockout loss to the Dubliner.

Posting on his official Twitter account after Poirier had detailed how he’d still be interested in finally standing opposite the above mentioned, Diaz, the Stockton native, who’s expected to make a lightweight division return in his next Octagon outing, claimed he’s training to beat Poirier next.

“I’m training to whoop your (Dustin Poirier) ass next. Be about it don’t talk about it.“

Diaz’s response to Poirier comes from the former interim champion’s claim that he would be open to a clash with The Ultimate Fighter victor in the future after a hip injury ruled him from a highly-anticipated matchup at UFC 230 in November of 2018.

“I mean a rematch with Conor (McGregor) interests me,” Poirier said to The Mac Life’s, Oscar Willis. “(I) Always wanted to whip Nate Diaz’s ass, that interests me. In fighting that’s about (it) — I’m sure something will make sense. But right now, I don’t know. Me and Conor are 1-1, Nate Diaz got away and likes to talk a lot of sh*t online. But I gotta just go back home and we’ll see.”

Expected to make his Octagon return this year, Diaz has been out of action since UFC 244 in November of 2019, where he dropped a third-round doctor’s stoppage defeat to Poirier’s American Top Team teammate, Jorge ‘Gamebred’ Masvidal in a welterweight BMF championship clash.