Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier’s feud began after their controversial meeting at UFC 211. The fight ended as a no-contest after Eddie Alvarez threw a trio of illegal knees to Dustin Poirier’s head.
Now, Dustin Poirier has added fuel to the fire. On The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, Poirier claimed that Alvarez has refused the rematch on five separate occasions.
“It was offered a bunch of times, man,” Poirier said. “There were a bunch of cards that they offered the fight on. I accepted every time they offered it, Eddie turned it down every time. I think it was five times.”
Eddie Alvarez has now responded to Dustin Poirier’s bold claims. In an interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, the fighter known as “The Underground King” branded the claims as “silly talk”.
Instead of fighting Dustin Poirier in a rematch bout, Alvarez decided to take an opportunity as a head coach on the UFC’s Ultimate Fighter, fighting Justin Gaethje in the finale of the competition.
“I believe I was offered Dustin the first time he was angry,” Alvarez said. “But I was given The Ultimate Fighter show, and I think that’s where all his bitterness comes from. I think he wanted to be on The Ultimate Fighter show, they gave me the gig, and I got paid well for that, and I got a very good opponent. So I basically got a better opportunity than Dustin Poirier and I took it. If that’s ducking, then I’m ducking, yes, But I’ll always take more money and a better opponent over someone else any day of the week.”
Despite Poirier’s claims, Alvarez has said that he has never been formally offered the fight after the original discussion following the events of UFC 211.
“We spoke about it. But the only thing spoken about after Justin Gaethje was re-signing with the UFC,” he said. “I never got an opponent or a bout agreement. They never said ‘here’s a bout agreement for an opponent.’ The only thing we spoke of was re-signing and we haven’t come to that agreement yet. So I’m guessing there’s not going to be an opponent or a bout agreement in the mail unless I’m ready to re-sign. So when we come to agreement to re-sign, then I’m sure there will be a bout agreement in the mail.”
Although Poirier and Alvarez may not see eye to eye, Alvarez did have some praise regarding Poirier’s performance against Justin Gaethje at UFC on Fox 29 in Glendale.
“I feel like it went exactly the way I thought it would go, except he was able to gut it out,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t see him gutting it out. It looked like he was switching stances, he was doing a lot of the things I was doing. I know how hard Justin kicks, so I didn’t see Dustin gutting it out. I thought Justin Gaethje would end up taking over and winning. But Dustin surprised a lot of people and stuck in there so my hat’s off to him, he fought well.”
