Dustin Poirier Rules Out Possible Featherweight Return

Dustin Poirier

Dustin Poirier has the biggest fight thus far in his pro-MMA career booked, which is why he’s ruling out one possibility.

That possibility is to make a return to the UFC featherweight division. The interim lightweight champion is slated to challenge undisputed lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov at the upcoming UFC 242 pay-per-view (PPV) event.

In his latest fight, Poirier beat Max Holloway via hard-fought unanimous decision for the interim UFC lightweight title in the main event of the UFC 236. The show went down on April 13, 2019, at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dustin Poirier Rules Featherweight Possibility

The promotion held a press conference on Wednesday (June 12, 2019) to promote the fight. During the presser, one reporter asked “The Diamond” if he’d want to go back down to featherweight to contend for another title. This is what he had to say:

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No, I’ll never fight at 145 again in my career. It won’t happen. If anything, in the future, maybe a move up, but I don’t like to look that far ahead. My hands are full September 7. I’m focused on that. We’ll see what happens after that, but definitely featherweight is out of the picture.

The UFC recently announced an agreement of a new five-year partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism — Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi). The UFC 240 PPV event takes place on Saturday, September 7 at The Arena in Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. The main card will air on PPV at 10 p.m. ET. The preliminary card will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. ET, and the ESPN’s streaming service, ESPN+.