The long-anticipated lightweight championship showdown between
Charles
Oliveira and Dustin
Poirier is a done deal.
Poirier’s representatives confirmed to promotional broadcast
partner
ESPN on Sunday night that the Louisiana native has agreed to
challenge Oliveira for lightweight gold at UFC 269 on Dec. 11.
Poirier added his own note of confirmation via Twitter: “Signed,
sealed and delivered.”
MMAFighting.com was first to report the Oliveira-Poirier
matchup last month.
Signed, Sealed, Delivered.
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier)
October 4, 2021
UFC 269 doesn’t have an official location but will likely take
place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The card is also expected
to include a women’s bantamweight title tilt beetween reigning
champ Amanda
Nunes and Julianna
Pena.
Oliveira claimed the 155-pound throne vacated by Khabib
Nurmagomedov on May 15, when he defeat Michael
Chandler via second-round TKO in the UFC 262 headliner. “Do
Bronx” is currently on a nine-bout win streak that includes
victories over the likes of Tony
Ferguson, Kevin Lee,
Jim
Miller and Clay Guida. He
has finished all but one of those wins inside the distance.
After scoring a second-round knockout of Conor
McGregor at UFC 257 in January, Poirier was believed to be the
promotion’s top lightweight contender. However, “The Diamond”
elected to pursue a lucrative trilogy against the Irish superstar,
which he won after McGregor suffered a leg injury in the opening
stanza at UFC 264 in July. Poirier has lost just once in 10
appearances — a submission defeat in a title bid against
Nurmagomedov — dating back to 2017.