Dustin Poirier Promises He’ll Stop ‘Silly’ Eddie Alvarez In Rematch
Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez were well on their way to a sharing “Fight of the Night” in the featured preliminary bout of UFC 211 last Saturday (May 13, 2017) from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, but a controversial no contest after what clearly looked like an illegal knee from Alvarez put a stop to the action and left fans wanting a rematch.
After the fight Poirier was respectful to the former champion, demanding the crowd not boo him. Once he had a chance to settle down, however, Poirier was none too pleased with the result, which saw his win bonus taken away from him and left him with stitches on his face. He revealed that he planned to appeal the result, but there’s not telling what that will produce, especially in Texas – a state that does not yet utilize the new Unified Rules of MMA, making the call even cloudier.
The controversy can of course be cleared up if and when the two rivals have a rematch, something that’s beginning to look quite obvious. Poirier and Alvarez got the trash talk starting online today, with “The Diamond” first asking when Alvarez wanted to fight before telling him he owed him some stitches:
When you wanna do it @Ealvarezfight ?????
I owe you some stitches
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) May 16, 2017
Alvarez replied back an hour later to say the fight was a go, but warned Poirier not to get too excited, as he ‘wanted out’ at UFC 211:
Next fight is You 💯 … don't get too excited Your not the first guy to hurt me badly before I finished him ..knee or no knee U wanted out
— Eddie Alvarez (@Ealvarezfight) May 16, 2017
Finally Poirier called Alvarez silly and promised to finish him in the second bout:
Lol your silly. I'm gonna stop you next time. https://t.co/rI7Ij8fCuc
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) May 16, 2017
With the fight a clear choice, expect it to go down sometime in the summer or fall, with the winner advancing a decent way way up the already crowded and backlogged lightweight pecking order.
Poirier will be looking for his sixth win in eight fights since going back to lightweight, and Alvarez is looking to get back on track after a one-sided loss to current champ Conor McGregor in the main event of last November’s UFC 205. Both fighters share the distinction of having been brutally finished by McGregor, and they will also need a win here to have even anything close to a shot at facing the seldom-seen Irishman again.
First things first, however, and both need to focus on the task at hand. Poirier obviously believes he deserves a win, but referee Herb Dean recently explained why he gave Alvarez a no contest in the heat of the moment:
“I would have disqualifed him if I believed they were intentional,” Dean said. “How I rule I knew that Eddie couldn’t see whether (Poirier’s) knee was down or not – that’s why I ruled it unintentional.
“There’s a lot going on in there, and that’s why (referees) give people a little bit of leeway with some of those rules. I reserve ‘intentional’ for someone acting out of the rules and being a bad guy, and they need to be disqualified. I don’t think (Alvarez) was trying to be a bad person. I think he was trying to fight within the rules – it’s just that it’s difficult.”
It is difficult to be sure, yet fighters’ health and safety are on the line in close calls like that, and few are surprised Poirier is appealing.
Will he get the win he believes he earned, or will he only be able to prove that in the rematch?
