It was announced this week that Poirier, a former interim champion who is ranked third in the division, will face 12th-ranked Saint-Denis in Miami on 9 March. Since suffering a decision loss in his promotional debut — the first loss of his professional career — the year-old has secured five straight wins via stoppage. Yet his bout with Poirier marks a significant step-up in competition, and a significant risk for the American, who suffered a knockout loss to Justin Gaethje last time out.
The UFC is a business but also about sports. If a guy is coming off a loss, and the guys just behind him and in front of him already have a fight booked, he has to defend his rank. When there are fights taking place ahead of me [in the rankings], there are not a lot of people left to make one. I believe it will be a No 1 contender fight for the BMF title. It appeared for the second time last summer, when Gaethje knocked out Poirier to collect the gold.
But of course, if everything goes well, Justin Gaethje and [lightweight champion] Islam Makhachev are two guys that I want to fight. Saint-Denis last fought in November, knocking out Matt Frevola with a head kick in round one. Poirier, 34, won the interim lightweight title in but failed to unify the belts against Khabib Nurmagomedov later that year, losing via submission. After Khabib retired and relinquised the title in , Charles Oliveira won the vacant gold and retained it against Poirier in , also by submission.
Poirier won three straight fights between those defeats — including two victories over Conor McGregor — and bounced back from his loss to Oliveira by submitting Michael Chandler. He then suffered another setback, however, with his first-round defeat by Gaethje last July. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies. Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in.
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