Gaethje Responds To A Poirier Trilogy

Poirier, who retired following a loss to Max Holloway at UFC 318 last summer, sparked comeback rumors after witnessing Gaethje’s performance against Paddy Pimblett. After former fighter Josh Thomson publicly called for a trilogy to settle their 1-1 rivalry, Poirier fueled the fire by replying, “I’ll come back for that one.” Gaethje has now had his say.

“Dustin’s a warrior, and I’ll always respect him. If he really wants to come back and the UFC wants that fight, I’d do it. But I’m focused on moving forward, not backward. I’ve got goals I’m chasing, and that’s where my attention is,” Gaethje said

The prospects of it happening depend on whether Dustin is happy with retirement. While he has switched to media duties since leaving the sport, Poirier admitted that he misses the sport. There are plenty of cases where fighters come back and are never the same. Two-division champion Henry Cejudo is an example of that.

Poirier’s Struggles

Meanwhile, there is also a risk of staying in the sport too long. Tony Ferguson left the UFC on a poor run of form. Although he has made a successful switch to Misfits Boxing, his UFC career will be looked at differently. Dustin outlined his current struggles. 

“I was really worried about staying busy, but it seems like I was kind of lying to myself. Because in [training] camp, I think people from the outside think of that as being busy. But it’s kind of like I lock myself away from the world. I don’t answer as many calls. I don’t do as much texting people back. I don’t have any plans but training. So that chaos I always thought was being busy was actually calm. Now that I’m living a normal life, this is busy,” Poirier said