UFC's Dustin Poirier: Conor McGregor, Nate Diaz Among Possible Future Fight Opponents

If Dustin Poirier ever decides to step foot in the Octagon again, he already has a handful of names he'd like to fight.

Poirier told the Anik & Florian podcast that Nate Diaz, Conor McGregor, Alexander Volkanovski, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway, Charles Oliveira, and Colby Covington are among the names he would consider.

"For sure. If I do fight again and when I do fight again, it will be definitely one of those guys you just said," Poirier told Jon Anik.

Poirier is considering retirement after being submitted in the fifth round of his fight against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302. He's yet to make any official announcements, but it does appear he's leaning more toward a return — at least for one fight.

"The shift needs to be internally for what the motivation for fighting is," Poirier said. "Because if it's not about the world title, why am I fighting? And after the Islam fight, when I got back home I thought, 'Maybe this is it?' A few weeks went by, injuries started hurting less and less post-fight, and I was like, 'I've got to do this again.' I've never lost two in a row. I can't leave this sport on a loss.

"But at the same time, I want to be 100 percent in it if I'm going to do it again, because I don't want to disrespect the sport. I honor this stuff. I do. I just want to do it right and get my hand raised and leave on my terms with a win. But that's no guarantee. I could go back out there and somebody could whip my ass. That's the thing."

Poirier sounds like he's at least interested in taking an extended break to get his body and mind right before fighting again. He took the Makhachev fight with less than three months of notice after knocking out Benoît Saint Denis in March.

The 35-year-old has not taken a break of more than 11 months in his fighting career. Odds are we won't see him again in 2024, but a return in early 2025 could make some sense.