At UFC 211, Dustin Poirier and Eddie Alvarez fought to a no contest due to Alvarez hitting illegal knees to Poirier in the second round. After his recent win over Pettis, Poirier believes the time is right for a rematch against Alvarez.
However, Alvarez does feel the same way.
After scoring a third round TKO of Gaethje, Alvarez believes that a represent a step backward at a time Alvarez is looking to move forward.
“Considering what I just did, that would be the silliest thing I could do,” Alvarez said recently on The MMA Hour of a Poirier rematch. “They put me against an undefeated rising star in Justin Gaethje. They were going to give Gaethje a title fight. If Justin Gaethje beat me, he was going to fight for a title. Didn’t happen. I knocked the guy out and he’s never been beat in his life.”
Alvarez understands why Poirier wants the fight, but Alvarez would rather sit back and see what transpires between training partner Edson Barboza and Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 219 before even thinking about what to do next.
“I respect Dustin for the push, he’s doing his best job,” Alvarez said. “But it’s all for naught. It would be silly for me to let me go backwards and look at that guy. I’m looking the same way he’s looking: Forward at like Tony Ferguson, we’ll keep an eye on the Khabib-Barboza fight. I’m going to do my best to help Edson whoop on Khabib. We’ll see how that top shakes out.”