Last week the Ultimate Fighting Championship held a press event to promote the remaining fights of the year and threw a curve ball when it announced an explosive lightweight bout between Dustin Poirier and Nate Diaz at UFC 230 in New York.
Poirier is coming off an impressive knockout victory in his rematch against former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez last month and the win edged “The Diamond” ever closer to a title fight. However, with Conor McGregor’s legal troubles behind him for the moment and the possibility of a blockbuster fight between McGregor and champion Khabib Nurmagomedov looming, Poirier may have realized -- or been told -- that he did not have a realistic chance to be the next challenger.