The rivalry between Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez continues, and "The Diamond" really wants a shot at redemption against "The Underground King."
The pair initially met back in May at UFC 211 from Dallas, Texas. During the second round of the epic brawl, Alvarez threw some illegal knees to Poirier's head, as he was considered a downed opponent at the time. As a result, the fight was ruled a No Contest and it was put to an end.
Afterwards Poirier was awarded a fight against ex-UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis (which he won), and Alvarez was casted as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter before going on to defeat opposing coach Justing Gaethje.
Now that both Poirier and Alvarez have won their respective fights since meeting one another in the cage, "The Diamond" wants another crack at the former 155-pound champ.
During a recent interview on The MMA Hour, Poirier reacted to Alvarez claiming that he had quit in their first fight (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“That’s cute,” he said in reaction to the clip. I’m not a quitter, man. Just look at my history.
"I don’t know what to say about that, but if he needs to tell people that to make himself feel better about the nine minutes and 30 seconds that he got his ass whipped, whatever.
“The thing is, I grew up looking up to Eddie. He was a big name fighting out in Japan and HD Net used to do specials on him and stuff.
"I was a young fighter then and I really liked the guy. Now, still, I respect the fighter. He’s a strong fighter and he has a lot of heart, but as a person he’s a b*tch, man.
“He’s talking sh*t. When I stood up for him in the heat of the moment I thought that maybe (the illegal knees) were accidents and now I’ve gone back and watched the fight as fan like you said.
“Now I think it was in purpose. It was a veteran move, he knew he was out of that fight and he saw an opportunity to land a strike on a guy and did it. I think he knew exactly what he was doing.
“He quit. I never quit anything in my life. I’m a fighter man, that’s ridiculous. It makes sense if we had no history and it makes even more sense now that we have history.
"Fans want to see it, I want to do it again, I’m not so sure about him. Me and Eddie are going to fight and the rest of the division can play itself out in the meantime.
"We got another big fight with Edson and Khabib coming up. Everything is going to fall into place at the perfect time. I have confidence.
“There will be blood for sure, but I’m not going in there and planting my feet and seeing who is gonna fall first. I’m going to go in there and finesse him again.”
What are your thoughts on Poirier's comments regarding a rematch with Alvarez? Do you think that Poirier and Alvarez will have a rematch down the road? If so, who do you think will win the rematch? Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments section below!
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