During his post-fight interview in the cage at UFC Norfolk on Saturday night, Dustin Poirier made it clear he wants the winner of the UFC 218 throwdown between Eddie Alvarez and Justin Gaethje next.

But given a little time after his victory over Anthony Pettis to think about things, Poirier has a clear choice in which of the two he’d rather fight in mind: Poirier wants another crack at Alvarez.

Poirier and Alvarez fought in an exciting scrap at UFC 211. Poirier appeared well on his way to winning when a series of illegal knees thrown by Alvarez resulted in the bout being ruled a no-contest when Poirier couldn’t continue.

So not only does Poirier hope Alvarez beats Gaethje to bring about a rematch he believes already should have happened.

“I hope Eddie wins,” Poirier said at the post-fight press conference. “We can build this up into what it should be, a rematch I should have got before this fight even happened tonight. I should have gotten an automatic rematch.”

Instead, Alvarez ended up coaching the current season of The Ultimate Fighter against Gaethje, which culminates in their bout in Detroit, something which rankles Poirier.

“He shouldn’t have been rewarded with a TV show, and more publicity, and another fight against another high-ranked guy,” Poirier said. “He cheated, and got out of a fight he was losing, and he should be forced to run it back with me. ... I’m the guy who got robbed in that fight. He got rewarded.”

There are no guarantees when it comes to UFC fight bookings, but Poirier is confident he’ll get the call regardless who wins the Alvarez-Geathje fight.

“One-hundred percent, I deserve it,” Poirier said. “I earned it. I’m not begging for it, I won.”