Dustin Poirier is itching to fight again, and is willing to enter the octagon even on short notice. A rumor was circulated by satire account ‘Upfront MMA’ claimed that the Charles Oliveira vs Michael Chandler bout at UFC309 was in jeopardy ‘due to undisclosed reasons’. And Poirier fell for it.
Not knowing that the rumor was started by a satirical X (formerly Twitter) account, Poirier jumped in, reminding the promotion of his presence in case they needed a fighter to fill in.
Oliveira too reacted to the rumors of Chandler pulling out with an emoji, while Poirier responded with two words,
“I’m in.”
And it wasn’t just the two fighters, a big part of the UFC fan community too fell for the satire post. The post had reached 600,000 people at the time of writing this article. UpFront MMA later clarified that it was, in fact, a satirical post.
Anyone out there ever hear of satire? Just because you don’t laugh, don’t mean it ain’t funny.
— UPFRONT MMA (@upfrontmma) November 7, 2024
A Poirier vs Oliveira fight would have made a lot of sense though, given the legendary status both the fighters enjoy in the lightweight division. It could have arguably been more exciting than the Chandler fight. Oliveira and Poirier are two of the most entertaining fighters in the division and if the rumor was true, UFC fans would have been in for a treat.
The pair has fought previously when the Brazilian held the belt. In that bout, Poirier started well, before ‘Do Bronx‘ came back in spectacular fashion and finished the fight with a rear naked choke.
Helwani and Chandler too had to step in to quash the rumors
After waking up to a flurry of posts on X about the change of plans at UFC 309, Ariel Helwani immediately clarified that the fight would go on as planned and that all rumors about a change in lineup for UFC 309 were false
“Based on the conversations that I have had the fight is not in jeopardy. I don’t know if there is smoke to the fire right now. I reached out to the Chandler team and was told, news to them. Reached out to a couple of people and they said, news to them,” he said.
Chandler too posted a video of himself on social media, dripping in sweat, with the caption “Sweat equity in the garage…10 days to go for UFC 309”.
Sweat equity in the garage… 10days to #ufc309 pic.twitter.com/MzemV4g1aI
— Michael Chandler (@MikeChandlerMMA) November 7, 2024
Maybe Chandler got a whiff of the rumor too, and wanted to set the record straight by confirming that he was on course to go up against Oliveira at UFC 309.
Despite being super eager to fight Oliveira, it seems Poirier will have to wait a little more to dust off his gloves.
