35-year-old Dustin Poirier proved why he is called ‘The Diamond’ when he humbled the French lion Benoit Saint-Denis. However, Despite the heavy R2 loss, the 28-year-old is not slowing down in any manner. In recent news, the Frenchman revealed his dream matchup with #1 contender Arman Tsarukyan meanwhile poking a sly one at the champion, Islam Makhachev.
Speaking to MMAJunkies’ Farah Hannoun, the 28-year-old dropped a major hint about his potential next fight, revealing his desire to take on anyone at the top. While the fighter is open for any fight, his dream match as he revealed, would be up against Tsarukyan who is coming off of the biggest win in his career. In the same exclusive, the Frenchman slammed the lightweight champion for not being active.
“I would love to face Arman Tsarukyan… obviously he’s #1 contender but [Islam] Makhachev is not the most active champion. I don’t know if he’ll still be champion, but if he’s still champion, I think he will take some time off…”
Benoit Saint-Denis is open to fighting Dan Hooker next, but says he’d “love to face Arman Tsarukyan”:
“I would like to face somebody with the best number possible next to his name. So if it’s Dan Hooker, it’s Dan Hooker. I would love it. Maybe #7, maybe #6, maybe #5…
I would… pic.twitter.com/5zu4QaH7qb
— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) May 6, 2024
This new development comes in the wake of Makhachev’s upcoming title defense against Dustin Poirier at UFC 302 in June. With the fighter respectfully speaking his mind, expressing the desire to take on the Armenian, things are about to get a lot more interesting. Not to mention, his cheeky one at Makhachev.
In all honesty, BSD has a point here. The champion apparently seems like he is enjoying his time at the top and he should rightfully do so. However, if you look a little closer, the Dagestani is now taking up only one fight a year. In fact, after snatching the title from Charles Oliveria in 2022, he has fought only twice, that too against former featherweight king Alexander Volkanovski.
His upcoming fight against Poirier will be his third title defense and his taunts against Makhachev speak volumes about the fighter. Tsarukyan in his defense alleged that Makhachev only wanted a short-notice fight to make his work easier. As Saint-Denis stated, “A lot of stuff can happen in this division.”
Besides this remark, the Frenchman also expressed his desire to take on the Kiwi sensation Dan Hooker as his next potential opponent.
BSD gets candid, lining up his desired matchups
Before he poked Makhachev, sharing doubts about the champion’s reign, the soldier-turned-fighter got blunt about his potential matchups in the lightweight division. In essence, he wants all the smoke of the top dogs of the division. Mentioning Dan Hooker who is currently 11th in the rankings, BSD said he is open to fighting anybody but it has to be the cream of the crop. He said,
“I would like to face somebody with the best number possible next to his name. So if it’s Dan Hooker, it’s Dan Hooker. I would love it. Maybe #7, maybe #6, maybe #5…”
Now with the 28-year-old taunting the champ, he is most likely to get a response from Makhachev who is honing his skills to take on Poirier who rose up to the occasion to flatline the ‘God of War.’
