Dustin Poirier has voiced his discontent on a number occasions after illegal knees brought a stop to his meeting with Eddie Alvarez at UFC 211, resulting in the fight being ruled a no-contest.

Although Poirier campaigned for a rematch, Alvarez was booked to meet Justin Gaethje at UFC 218 instead.

Initially, Alvarez verbally agreed to the rematch but in hindsight he believes Poirier quit when he was able to continue after the bout was brought to a halt.

“When I looked back at the fight, when I assessed it myself as a fan and took the fighter outside of it, I sincerely think the guy just quit,” Alvarez told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour.

“The UFC knows that, Herb Dean knows that and they made him pay for it. He’s mad about it, but there’s nothing he can do about it. It’s over, but he’s angry that he quit.

“It’s very simple to go back and look at the tape. You see a clear conscious person who is able to fight just quit. I just feel like he tried to game everyone and he got gamed and he’s pissed about it.

“In the articles afterward he’s saying, ‘if the UFC just lets me move on and act like I beat him then I’ll just move on’, but I’m like what do you mean? First you’re saying that you want a rematch and now you’ll just move on if the UFC allows it?

“It was all a little funny. He tried to game everyone but it’s all there on the video. You see a man who’s conscious and clear-headed say to the ref, ‘I’m done.’

“You can’t game everyone. There’s a ton of people watching and there are (cameras) right there in your face. I didn’t like the way he went about that. He should have taken his five minutes and then came back and finished the fight.”

Alvarez insisted that he has moved on from Poirier:

“I’ve clearly moved on. I’ve done the show and I’m fighting the best people in the division still. I still want to continue to fight the best names in the division.”

As for Poirier’s recent win over Anthony Pettis, Alvarez was not overawed by the third-round finish claiming that “everyone in the division” has a win over the former lightweight champion.

“He did really well,” Alvarez commented on Poirier’s win over Pettis.

“I don’t look at Anthony Pettis anymore. I mean, everyone in this division has beat Anthony Pettis. I don’t follow Anthony Pettis but I can think of five guys off the top of my head who beat Anthony Pettis.

“He’s figured out. Everyone has beat him. He’s just going to get beat worse if he stays in the division until he finds a real good matchup, but in the top five and top ten he’s been figured out.

“If you can’t beat Anthony Pettis by now, you’re not paying attention.”