Is Dustin Poirier Going to Fight in UFC Welterweight Division Next? Will He Face Colby Covington or Shavkat Rakhmonov?

A number of fellow UFC fighters have revealed that the famed UFC former Interim Lightweight champ, Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier walks around at about 190 lbs. In an episode of the noted UFC color commentator, Joe Rogan’s podcast, Poirier also agreed to this himself. Hence, it’s quite understandable that Poirier can easily fight as a Welterweight if he wishes to.

As of now, ‘The Diamond’ has fought in two weight divisions of the UFC. After starting off his UFC run as a Lightweight, ‘the Lafayette native’ soon dropped down a division to Featherweight. Notably, he also had the first of his three bouts against the noted UFC icon Conor McGregor at Featherweight. However, he climbed back to Lightweight after his loss against ‘Mystic Mac’ and 11 bouts as a Featherweight. But his current situation in the UFC’s Lightweight division and his known nature of changing weight classes have sparked a few speculations about Poirier going for yet another change in the same.

Will Dustin Poirier fight as a Welterweight following his UFC 291 debacle?

Almost every UFC fan is aware of the grievous defeat that Poirier had to endure at his UFC 291 outing. ‘The Diamond’ fell prey to one of Justin Gaethje’s vicious head kicks, resulting in a KO loss for him. He also lost out on the coveted ‘BMF’ title of the UFC as a result of this loss. Now if we take a look at Poirier’s previous UFC history, we’ll see that he only decides to shift weight classes after major defeats.

His first defeat in the UFC against Zachary Micklewright had him moving down to Featherweight from his natural weight class of Lightweight. ‘The Diamond’ had his next major defeat against Conor McGregor at UFC 178, where they both fought as Featherweights. Following this one, Poirier decided to return to Lightweight once more and is having the best run of his career.

But, his devastating UFC 291 loss has sparked speculations about Poirier opting for another change of weight classes. Although ‘The Diamond’ has prior experience of fighting as a Featherweight. This time he might opt to move up a class and fight as a Welterweight too. He further gave out a hint towards the same when he tweeted, “Ok I’ll move up”, while he was answering a few fans who were asking him to move up to “170lbs”.

Most UFC fans might know that weight-cutting gets harder for a fighter with age. Also, it has been almost a decade since Poirier had his last bout as a Featherweight. Hence, it’s quite understandable that he probably won’t be cutting down to Featherweight this time. This leaves the option of moving up to Wetlterweight as his only viable one if he wants to make a change at all.

Which Welterweight will the UFC choose to welcome Dustin Poirier in the division?

In 2018, he also agreed to move up to Welterweight for a fight against Nate Diaz at UFC 230. Unfortunately, he had to pull out of the bout due to an injury. However, another significant question lurking around is who might be the fighter to welcome Dustin Poirier to Welterweight, now that Diaz is out of the UFC roster.

The famed former UFC Interim Welterweight champ, Colby Covington, has fired a barrage of insults addressing Poirier on different occasions. On some, he has called him a “soy-boy” while on others he hasn’t spared his wife Jolie as well.

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Looking at this bad blood between the two, the UFC could very well pit ‘Chaos’ against ‘The Diamond’ if the latter chooses to make a transition.

Another possible name that the UFC might elect is the famed Kazak Welterweight, Shavkat Rakhmonov. Since his induction, Rakhmonov has pretty much steamrolled the low-ranked Welterweights of the promotion holding a 5-0 UFC record to date. In such a situation, the UFC might opt to test him against one of their most durable faces, Poirier.

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On the other hand, some fans might say that Rakhmonov also looks interested in this fight as he retweeted Poirier’s previously mentioned tweet. ‘Nomad’ wrote, “OK”.

But with both welterweights having their next bouts scheduled, it’s currently pretty hard to say who the UFC would finally select to face Poirier. Whom would you like to choose as Poirier’s first Welterweight opponent if he chooses to make the move?