Dustin Poirier competed in the main event of UFC On Fox 30, defeating former UFC Lightweight Champion Eddie Alvarez by second round TKO.
The two have shown quite the hostility towards each other due to the circumstances surrounding the controversial UFC 211 encounter, but Poirier says the beef is over between them.
“I felt like Eddie and his whole team, they didn’t say anything, but they rode with him when he said all that foul stuff about me,” Poirier said during the UFC On Fox 30 post-fight press conference. “That I quit, that I wanted out, that I broke. I felt like they’re part of that. If you’re riding with him and standing around him while he’s screaming stuff like that, I don’t like you so much, either. That was the heat of that. I apologized to everybody after when we got to the back. To Eddie, to Mark (Henry), to all of his other cornermen. I shouldn’t have done that. It was very immature. That was just the heat of the moment and I had some animosity from some stuff Eddie said in the lead-up to the fight. I would never quit. I’m a fighter through and through.”
Poirier and Alvarez first met at UFC 211 last year, with the bout ending in a no contest after Alvarez nailed Poirier with a pair of illegal knee strikes.
Now that the issues between them are over with, a happy Poirier is excited to see what is next for Alvarez.
“There’s still a lot of fun fights,” Poirier said. “Coming into this fight I didn’t respect him because of things he was saying after our first fight, but I’m a fan. I’m a fan of the guy for a long time. Back to his fights in DREAM I’ve been watching his fights and enjoying them. I was so excited when him and Justin Gaethje got announced. I was upset it wasn’t me fighting Eddie, but I was excited for that fight because I’m a fan of the sport. Only Eddie knows what’s next for him. Maybe there’s more money out there, better opportunities. I don’t know. It’s not for me to say. But I’ll be watching him wherever he goes.”
Alvarez fought for the final time on his current UFC contract at UFC On Fox 30, meaning the former lightweight champion may now be heading into free agency.
