Dustin Poirier warns UFC against ‘making a mockery’ of the system by letting Conor McGregor fight without passing a drug test 

Dustin Poirier recently addressed the ongoing discussion surrounding Conor McGregor's return and warned the UFC of potential backlash should they exempt him from certain procedures.

During his appearance on The MMA Hour, Poirier was asked for his thoughts on McGregor challenging Justin Gaethje for the 'BMF' title following UFC 291. He mentioned that he believes the former two-division UFC champion needs to submit a negative drug test before his return can even become a thought.

He said:

"Dude, he needs to pass a drug test, you know? That's what he needs to do...Yeah, he needs to pass a drug test."

'The Diamond' then brought up that it is important that 'The Notorious' is treated the same as the other fighters for the integrity of the sport. He warned the promotion about giving special treatment and mentioned that it would send a bad message to what they spent years attempting to correct, saying:

"If we change the rules for him to compete to sell some pay-per-views, I mean, we make a mockery of all this we put in place. But they're the judge and the jury, so they do what they wanna do, so we'll see, man."

It remains to be seen whether Conor McGregor will be granted a USADA exemption that will allow him to compete this year, or if the UFC shares a similar view as Dustin Poirier.

---

Dustin Poirier believes that he is still a better fighter than Justin Gaethje

Despite his knockout loss to Justin Gaethje in their 'BMF' title fight this past Saturday, Dustin Poirier believes that he is still the better fighter.

During the aforementioned appearance, the former interim lightweight champion opened up about his knockout loss. He mentioned that the loss is tougher to get over compared to his past loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov and described his mentality heading into UFC 291.

He said:

"Khabib [Nurmagomedov] was better than me. I lost Saturday to somebody who I think I'm better than...I was away from home for 9 weeks in training camp, you know? I dieted 11 weeks, sacrificed so much, was really focused, man...And felt great, the best I've ever felt."