Poirier: McGregor trilogy unlikely to be for lightweight title

Las Vegas, February 2: Dustin Poirier wants a shot at the lightweight title in his next bout and is unsure if the UFC would agree to that as part of a trilogy fight with Conor McGregor.

Khabib Nurmagomedov still holds the lightweight belt with the UFC trying to lure him out of retirement, though Poirier has taken to declaring himself the champion in the meantime.

The 32-year-old won the interim title in April 2019 but was submitted by Khabib in a unification fight at UFC 242.

Poirier put himself in pole position for a shot at the undisputed crown by beating McGregor, who won their first fight in September 2014, by TKO at UFC 257 in January.

Both are open to a third fight, but Poirier has his eyes on the title and does not think another meeting with McGregor would provide that at the moment.

Asked if he would fight McGregor for the lightweight title, Poirier told ESPN: "I'm not sure if the UFC would do that.

"Why wasn't that one for the belt? Politics? We're chasing Khabib? What's going on here?

"I have no clue what direction [the UFC is going to] move in. Obviously [Justin] Gaethje's coming off a loss too, then there's [Michael] Chandler and [Charles] Oliveira. I need to go and look at the rankings to see the order we're in now.

"It's 1-1 [with McGregor]. I knocked him out; he knocked me out. The rubber match, it does make sense."

He added: "Who else has put the resume together that I have in my last six, seven fights, whatever it has been?

"Also beating Conor, a two-weight world champion, adds another former world champion to the list of guys I've taken out. I think I'm most deserving to be in a title fight out of all these guys, but I don't know who it's going to be against."