MMA News Roundup: Georges St-Pierre Destroys Dana White’s Islam Makhachev Snub, Fighter Pay Issues Raised by Sean Strickland, Dustin Poirier Opens Up on Future

The last 24 hours have produced some interesting headlines in the MMA world. Hence, without skipping a beat, let’s dive into the most noteworthy moments in today’s daily round edition! To start this news compilation, we will talk about a UFC legend, who weighed in on the pound-for-pound debate. His answer may not be to Dana White‘s liking.

Then we will shift our attention to former middleweight world champion Sean Strickland. Evidently, the Corona, California native voiced his concerns with the UFC’s pay structure- an issue that is way out from dying down anytime soon. Finally, we’ll sign off with the news of Dustin Poirier. The former interim champion revealed the uncertain nature of his MMA future.

Georges St-Pierre claims Islam Makhachev is the best pound-for-pound fighter

Islam Makhachev‘s win against Dustin Poirier was a special one. But why? Well, he defeated a bona fide legend of this sport, fought all five rounds, and capped off the fight with a submission win to retain his 155-pound piece of gold. Even Dana White was impressed, but he made one statement that felt may have stung Team Khabib.

The UFC CEO doesn’t think Makhachev is best when it comes to the pound-for-pound king status. White thinks that title belongs to Jon Jones. However, former double champion Georges St-Pierre has stepped up to get into the debate and he has refuted the UFC boss’s claims.

“I think right now he’s [Makhachev] the best pound-for-pound right now… because of his last few performances. Just amazing,” stated Georges St-Pierre on Tristar Gym’s YouTube channel. The fact that Islam Makhachev fought through the bad cuts he received on his forehead has ‘GSP’ praising the reigning lightweight champion even more. Well, it seems like everybody has their own P4P picks and it remains to be seen who else gets into this debate in the future.

Sean Strickland goes irate about UFC’s pay structure

Sean Strickland is back to being his vocal self and this time he’s made statements about an important issue, which is the fighter pay. Following an important win over Paulo Costa at UFC 302, he had a fit when he came across BKFC star Mike Perry on social media and ranted about how his promotion and the UFC treat the fighters on the roster. “UFC pay is utter garbage lol they’re signing guys at 10K/10K that should be criminal… but the vast majority of BKFC fighters are getting paid way less than that,” wrote Strickland on Instagram.

He’d further speak out that the executives and the behind-the-scenes personnel in the promotion make more money than they may not necessarily have a need for, and that’s something that he has an issue with as well. “These elites could probably never take a paycheck again and easily make 500k a year. Yet they still line their bank accounts with millions that they will never need or spend. In all industries,” Sean Strickland added. What do you make of these comments? But before that, let’s dive into the final news in this compilation regarding Dustin Poirier.

Is Dustin Poirier going to retire?

Fans are waiting to see what’s next for ‘The Diamond’, who put on a commendable performance against the seemingly unbeatable Islam Makhachev. It appears that Dustin Poirier has no idea what to fight for following the missed opportunity to become the undisputed champion. While on Ariel Helwani‘s ‘MMA Hour’, the former interim champion stated, “Even being this far from the fight, I still don’t know [what’s next]. I’m kind of looking for clarity, searching myself, and taking it one day at a time, but I don’t know. I don’t know what’s next.”

There is a chance that Dustin Porier finds himself in another fight against Conor McGregor, something that the Irishman has spoken about in the past. But is that the only thing left for him in the UFC? Well, Poirier mentioned after his UFC 302 that he preferred retiring from the sport by himself rather than the sport retiring him. Hence, we’ll have to wait and see what’s next for the Lafayette native.