Dustin Poirier has earned a UFC lightweight title shot. If there was any doubt about that, he erased it with his UFC Calgary drubbing of former champion Eddie Alvarez.

Unfortunately for Poirier, the title situation at lightweight is tremendously uncertain thanks to the potential comeback of former champion Conor McGregor. Should McGregor return, he will undoubtedly jump to the front of the contendership line and get the next crack at lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. All signs point to things shaking out this way — perhaps as soon as UFC 229 on October 6 in Las Vegas.

Dustin Poirier seems to be accepting this reality. In a perfect world, he says he’d like to wait for a shot at the winner of Nurmagomedov and McGregor’s potential title fight, but he understands that it might make more sense to take another fight in the interim.

“I’m not in a rush,” Poirier said on The Luke Thomas Show on Sirius XM Fight Nation (transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting). “If something makes sense, then let’s do it but other than that, I feel like I’ve earned a title shot. I’d love for them to fight and then me fight the winner, beginning of next year if that’s possible, but we’ll see. This is a crazy, crazy, crazy thing that we do and things are always changing so you never know.”

The key for Poirier, of course, is money. He’s not risking his hard-earned title shot for a typical payday. The UFC will have to make it well worth his while if they want him to take another non-title fight.

“That’s the only reason I’d come back,” Poirier said. “At the end of the day, I’ve been doing this to be a world champion and I feel like I’m the closest I’ve ever been so for me to do anything else but what I think I’ve earned, there’s gonna need to be money.”

If Dustin Poirier fights again before his title shot, who do you think he should fight? Tony Ferguson? Kevin Lee?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 8/1/2018.