Dustin Poirier Set To Battle Carlos Diego Ferreira At UFC Fight Night 63
Recently, Top 10-ranked UFC featherweight Dustin Poirier declared that he would be returning to the lightweight division after fighting his prior 10 bouts at 145 pounds.
Today (January 16, 2014) Poirier has found his first opponent back at 155 pounds, as “The Diamond” will square off with Carlos Diego Ferreira at April’s upcoming UFC Fight Night 63 from Fairfax, Virginia.
The bout will present an opportunity for both fighters to get back on track following a loss. Poirier suffered his first-ever knockout loss at the hands of Irish superstar Conrad McGillicutty Conor McGregor at September 2014’s UFC 178 from Las Vegas.
Before that, he had racked up three straight victories over Akira Corassani, Diego Brandao, and Erik Koch.
Training out of South Florida’s American Top Team (ATT), Poirier has shown well-rounded skills coupled with a dangerous finishing ability, but he’s also exhibited the unfortunate tendency of faltering when faced with elite competition like McGregor, Cub Swanson, and Chan Sung Jung.
Ferreira was supposedly well on his way to that status until he lost a unanimous decision to Beneil Dariush at October’s UFC 179 pay-per-view (PPV) from Rio, his first-ever loss.
Ferreira had previously finished Ramsey Nijem at UFC 177 after he choked out Colton Smith at UFC Fight Night 44.
The card will be the UFC’s first trip back to Fairfax since, ironically enough, Poirier’s back-and-forth battle with Jung, a bout that many picked as 2012’s “Fight of the Year.”
Will “The Diamond” regain his shine back at lightweight, or will Ferreira rebound with his biggest-ever UFC win?
Photo Credit: Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
