Future ‘world champion’ Dustin Poirier: It might be time for UFC to ‘strip’ McGregor of title

UFC lightweight contender Dustin Poirier is getting impatient with Conor McGregor.

As one of the top prospects in the UFC lightweight division, 28-year-old Dustin Poirier wants a clear path to a title shot.

Current champion Conor McGregor, however, has yet to defend his title and the Irishman claims that fighters must now ‘lobby’ for fights with him.

That kind of attitude doesn’t sit well with Poirier or the rest of the lightweight contenders for obvious reasons, and ‘The Diamond’ thinks it’s time for UFC officials to step in and strip him of the title.

“The thing is, the UFC’s pretending with Conor, but you have a list of top 10 fighters who aren’t pretending or messing around,” Poirier told Damon Martin of MMAWeekly in a recent interview. This is their lives and their goals and their family’s future, a lot of stuff on the line here. So no pretending — let’s strip the belt from the guy or make him fight.”

“We have to [strip him] and then other fights make sense. Tony [Ferguson] gets the belt, his belt becomes the real belt and then he fights the winner out of these next few fights we have coming at the beginning of the year. We’ve got to clear it up.”

McGregor, 29, believes he ‘transcended’ the fight game after going ten rounds with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the boxing ring this past August, even though he lost the fight via TKO.

Poirier, however, who lost to ‘The Notorious’ in 2014, has made his goal very clear: to become UFC lightweight champion in 2018.

“I’m going to be the world champion next year,” he stated.

Poirier beat former WEC and UFC 155-pound champ Anthony Pettis at UFC Fight Night 120 and the Louisianan is currently angling for a rematch with top-three contender Eddie Alvarez.