Poirier vs. Diaz was one of the most highly anticipated bouts slated for the UFC 230 fight card set for Nov. 3 at Madison Square Garden. In actuality, it was probably thee most anticipated bout, even after the addition of dual-division champion Daniel Cormier putting his heavyweight title on the line against Derrick Lewis.
The bout was doomed from the moment it was announced though.
After Diaz arrived late to the press conference where the bout was revealed, he later stormed out when Conor McGregor’s return to challenge lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov was unveiled during the same press conference.
Diaz has made all sorts of wild remarks since the bout was announced, questioning whether he’d even fight or not, criticizing the UFC for how it handled the bout’s promotion, and even demanding that the UFC declare the fight be for a newly created 165-pound championship.
It was ironic that an injury to Poirier would be the final nail in the coffin.
With just four weeks to go until fight time, Poirier had to withdraw because of a hip injury. Although a recent trip to Los Angeles for a second opinion offered a bit of a silver lining: surgery was off the table.
“I do not have to have surgery,” Poirier wrote on Twitter late Thursday.
“I’m going to stay in Los Angeles and get stem cell injections in my hip on Monday. From that point, I will have a three-week recovery. After that, I will be able to go back to training 100 percent.”
It’s highly unlikely, however, that the scrapped bout with Diaz will be rebooked anytime soon. Since pulling out of the fight, Poirier has said that there were already issues with Diaz before his withdrawal and that he wasn’t optimistic those issues would be resolved any time soon.
This article first appeared at News – MMAWeekly.com
