Dustin Poirier says Conor McGregor rematch is “alive,” claims the Irishman wants bout to prepare for Manny Pacquiao

Dustin Poirier says negotiations are alive for a rematch with Conor McGregor.

Recently, McGregor and Poirier have talked about having an exhibition bout. Yet, the fight was then offered by the UFC, and “The Diamond” says the negotiations are alive. The only thing slowing it down is the UFC wanting it to be in 2021.

“Right now they have a list of events that are already booked with headliners and I think the UFC is angling for this to be somewhere in January. Conor’s wanting to fight this year, as do I. I want to fight in 2020, I want one more fight this year,” Poirier said on Teddy Atlas’ podcast. “I think it’s those kinds of things slowing things down from getting the fight done, but the negotiations are alive.”

For Poirier, he believes Conor McGregor wants the fight to prepare for a boxing match against Manny Pacquiao. He believes a fight makes perfect sense due to the fact Pacquiao is also a southpaw and the boxing match has been rumored to take place sometime next year.

“Going back to why I think he wants this fight, it’s because he’s angling to fight Pacquiao. That was in the news. So I don’t know if the UFC wants him to fight one more time before they allow him to fight Pacquiao or if he just wants to get one more this year before starting next year with the Pacquiao fight, but what better way to do it against another southpaw? I think that might be his mindset,” Poirier said. “He wants to fight another southpaw before he fights another southpaw. I don’t know what’s going on, but I think that’s what the alignment is.”

Poirier also believes McGregor wants the rematch with Nurmagomedov and knows he has to get another win in order to get that. So, The Diamond believes the stars are aligning for the rematch to take place later this year.

Do you think we will see Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor in 2020?