Dustin Poirier to haters: ‘You really think I’m scared to fight somebody?’

UFC lightweight Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier (18-4 MMA) fell under scrutiny last week, when he opted against taking a short-notice fight with Norman Parke at this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 76 event in Dublin, Ireland.

Poirier defended his decision during a recent interview with MMAJunkieRadio:

“This is the thing I want people to know,” he said. “This would have been my 16th fight (under promotions owned by Zuffa LLC). This is for the fans who are talking crap or even other fighters who are: Listen, you think I’m scared to fight somebody? That’s ridiculous. I’m just looking at it as a business now. A lot of people are going to say, ‘You’re scared to fight.’ Me and my coaches sat down. I called my head coach, who was still in (Florida). He said, ‘Reschedule, and I’ll see you when you get back.’ It was that easy of a decision.”

When asked if he would have easily beaten “Stormin” Norman this past Saturday, “The Diamond” responded with the following:

“Ha, that’s a joke, man,” Poirier told MMAjunkie Radio when asked about whether he could have beaten Parke had they met. “Parke’s an easy fight. I said that from the jump. Hey, I saved Norman Parke’s career. He should be thankful this weekend I didn’t fight him. He would have been 0-3 in his last three fights, and he would be getting his walking papers. He’s lucky.”

When asked why he opted against taking a fight he considered to be ‘easy money’, Poirier responded with the following reasoning:

“All it would have been was a paycheck,” he said. “What if I had I broken my hand? What if I had torn my ACL? It’s more than just, ‘Let me get this paycheck.’ Norman Parke, for sure, is an easy fight. He’s going to try to lean on you, and he’s slow. I could go on and on. This is the thing. I’m a prize fighter, and the prize wasn’t right. That’s why I didn’t fight.”

Do you think Poirier made the right choice when he turned down the short-notice fight with Parke? Leave your opinion in the comment section below.