Dustin Poirier sends firm message to Nate Diaz

Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz were supposed to fight at UFC 230 in November. Unfortunately, Poirier ultimately withdrew from the fight with an injured hip — although he recently divulged there may have been more to the story.

Speaking with ESPN on Monday, Dustin Poirier was asked what he’d say to Nate Diaz if given the opportunity. The top lightweight contender, who battles Max Holloway for interim gold at UFC 236 on April 13, did not hold back.

See what he had to say below:

“Be real,” he said to his rival, before opening up on the chaos that surrounded their planned fight. “Be real, man. Tell the truth. Tell them how you were playing games [ahead of UFC 230], how you over-negotiated, how you didn’t take the main event spot when the UFC offered it to us.

“They were offering me different opponents, maybe a backup cause they knew Nate was out of the fight,” he continued. “So much stuff happened. Look, maybe me and Nate will cross paths one day, I don’t know. But just be real, dude. You preach all this stuff, practice what you preach, man. Be real, tell the truth.”

Dustin Poirier continued, assuring that he never would with withdrawn from the fight had he believed Nate Diaz would actually show up. This claim of course, is contrary to some recent comments from Diaz, who assures Poirier “b****ed out.”

“I had a hip injury that I was training through, and then when he kept playing around, playing games, and [the UFC] started talking about replacement opponents and stuff, then we were like ‘ok, let’s go get this hip fixed,'” Poirier concluded.

Do you think we’ll ever see Nate Diaz and Dustin Poirier fight, or is this fan-friendly matchup mired in the realm of the hypothetical?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 2/25/2019.