A persistent hip injury will force former UFC interim lightweight champ Dustin Poirier to undergo surgery, pushing back his anticipated timeline for return.
Poirier, 30, initially targeted January for his first fight since a failed bid to unify the lightweight belt. He polled fans for his next opponent after a callout of Conor McGregor fizzled.
Then he found out he needed to go under the knife.
Doctors will repair multiple tears in the labrum of Poirier’s hip. They’ll also reshape his femur bone, he told MMA Fighting on Tuesday; that will ensure it doesn’t create future tears.
All this will keep Poirier out of action until February or March, he announced on Twitter, with a six-week layoff expected. The Louisiana native previously has struggled with hip injuries, which prompted him to undergo stem cell treatments.
While Poirier’s title plans didn’t work out quite as expected, he leveraged his UFC 242 bout with champ Khabib Nurmagomedov into a $260,000 windfall for his charity, “The Good Fight Foundation.” Nurmagomedov and UFC President Dana White each donated $100,000 to the foundation.
In September, he partnered with former UFC heavyweight Justin Wren’s “Fight For The Forgotten” foundation on a reconstruction project in Uganda; the team will build solar powered water wells and a new water tower for an orphanage.
Poirier has also expressed interest in crossing over to the squared circle when Zuffa Boxing gets up and running.
Source:MMAfighting.com
