Dustin Poirier announces his fight with Benoit Saint-Denis is off

Dustin Poirier has announced that his fight with Benoit Saint-Denis is off.

It was on Sunday, January 7th that UFC CEO Dana White announced they had added a major lightweight matchup between Poirier and Saint-Denis to their March pay-per-view lineup.

‘The Diamond’ (29-8 MMA) was slated to fight rising contender Benoit Saint-Denis (13-1 MMA) in the co-main event at UFC 299, which takes place at the Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida on Saturday, March 9th.

Poirier last fought Justin Gaethje (25-4 MMA) in July of last year at UFC 291. The result was a head kick knockout to Poirier at 1:00 of Round 2. Gaethje would claim the ceremonial BMF title.

Saint-Denis is on a five-fight winning streak, his latest victory coming via way of KO against Matt Frevola (11-4 MMA) in November of last year at UFC 295.

It was just a few weeks ago that Saint-Denis opened up to ‘The Independent’ saying he was surprised Poirier accepted the fight:

“Of course, I was a bit surprised that he accepted. I believe the UFC worked on that as well. The UFC is a business but also about sports. If a guy is coming off a loss, and the guys just behind him and in front of him already have a fight booked, he has to defend his rank. I thought I was going to take on Beneil Dariush, and I was surprised it ended up being Dustin Poirier.”

Continuing, the Frenchman said:

“There are two guys that I want to fight. Of course Dustin Poirier was one of the guys, and I’m very happy he chose to fight, and we are going to have a great battle. But of course, if everything goes well, Justin Gaethje and (lightweight champion) Islam Makhachev are two guys that I want to fight.”

Well, apparently Saint-Denis is not going to have the opportunity to fight Poirier, at least not on March 9th.

Poirier himself took to ‘X‘ posting:

My fights off but still working 👊 pic.twitter.com/DRG61CJySA

— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) February 1, 2024

“My fights off but still working.”

It was Brett Okamoto who also took to ‘X’ elaborating on the cancelled fight between Poirier and Saint-Denis:

“Dustin Poirier (@DustinPoirier) expands on his recent “fights off” tweet (against Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299) to me via text … “There was no contractual agreement before the fight was announced and we couldn’t come to terms.”

Odd that the UFC would announce the fight when no agreement was signed.

Are you disappointed we won’t be seeing Poirier vs Saint-Denis at UFC 299?

Share your thoughts in the comment section PENN Nation!