Dustin Poirier declared his co-main event fight with Benoit Saint Denis at next month’s UFC 299 event in Florida was off earlier this week, only to declare it was back on again just a few hours later.
Despite having initially claimed that the fight had never been officially signed after being announced by Dana White, Poirier has since claimed that it was just a “misunderstanding.”
However, needless to say the matter has left some confusion as to what exactly was going on behind the scenes, and now ‘The Diamond’s’ teammate, Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen has spilled the beans on what really happened.
“I know Dustin pretty well, and I actually spoke with him about it today,” Eblen told SHAK MMA. “They just didn’t come to terms, man. The things that Dustin laid out for them that they need to provide for this fight they were not willing to do it.”
Eblen then went on to describe how Poirier had told him the UFC had revealed the fight before there was even a verbal agreement in place.
“Dustin’s in the position where he’s like, ‘Motherf*****, if you want me to fight, you gotta do this, this, and this for me. If you’re not gonna do this, this, and this for me, I’m not gonna fight.’ It’s not like he needs to fight, man. He doesn’t need to fight ever again. He makes really good money, he’s doing well for himself, he’s one of the best lightweights to ever do it. One of the best fighters to ever do it. I’m a huge fan of his fight style and the way he fights.
“I just think it’s kind of horse s*** because I know how much money the UFC makes and they could make that fight happen but they’re choosing not to because they’re being stingy in a way. The fact that no contract was signed and they were willing to f****** announce it is f****** beyond me, man. That’s never happened to me. Not even a verbal agreement, Dustin said.
“Dustin said, ‘Yeah, that sounds good, but like, we gotta get this deal worked out. That’s not a verbal agreement. A verbal agreement’s like, ‘Hey, if you do this, this, and this, I’m in,’ and they’re like, ‘Okay, we’ll do this, this, and this.’ Okay, cool, I’ll fight him. Then you do the contract and you sign the contract. There wasn’t even a verbal agreement on his end. It’s kind of crazy to me that they were willing to even promote it to this degree and then let it backfire like this.”
MMA journalist Guilherme Cruz has already incurred the foul-mouthed wrath of Dana White for suggesting that this fight wasn’t a done deal when it was announced, and now Eblen’s interview seems to have shaken the hornet’s nest again, so it’s unlikely we’ve heard the last of this particular story.
