Getting Personal With Dustin Poirier
A relative unknown to most fans of Zuffa brand MMA promotions, Dustin Poirier is a young 22-year-old fighter that just recently solidified his place as a top contender in the UFC featherweight division by systematically destroying Josh Grispi, the previously ranked number one contender to champion Jose Aldo’s feather weight belt.
Grispi had been on a 10 fight win streak and was looking unstoppable until going toe to toe with Poirier for three rounds and ultimately dropping a decision by 30-27 on all judges score cards. Poirier took the fight with the number one contender on short notice.
“It was maybe two weeks after I fought at WEC 52 they called me to fight Josh Grispi and said Jose Aldo got hurt. My manager called me and I was like ‘Sure, man let’s do it.’ This is a great chance to kick down the door in the UFC,” said Poirier. “I had been talking about going to 145 pounds and this was definitely a reason to make the cut.”
For many fighters taking on a challenge against such a dominant opponent as Josh Grispi it would require the council of others to make a determination on the choice, but the warrior spirit in Poirier overrides cautious consideration when accepting opponents and according to Poirier “Not even 5 minutes” to accept a fight with Grispi on short notice.
Bull headed determination and a warrior spirit are far from the only things that govern the decisions of the featherweight. Poirier is convinced that his Christian faith keeps him pointed in the right direction.
“It keeps me on track, you know. It keeps me able to live a good normal life and focus my time towards training like that,” Poirier emphasized. “If I didn’t live my life with rules like I do, because I’m a Christian I’d be doing a lot of stuff I shouldn’t be and that of course would affect my fight game.”
Many analysts say that Poirier is in the mix for a shot at Aldo’s championship belt, but Poirier has a different view on the situation. Poirier has been humble within his rise to stardom and concedes that he has a way to go before he is a deserved number one contender for the title. Poirier points out that he would like to be in his prime before he starts making challenges.
“Five, six, seven wins. Then maybe I’ll be ready for the belt. When it’s my time I want it to be no excuses. Maybe four or five years down the road I would like to fight for the belt. I know that’s a long time to stay in this orginization. I’m going to keep training my ass off, and fighting good fights, and do my best to stay here,” said Poirier.
The ability to reasonably decipher when title fights would be preferred is not common among young fighters. The audacious Poirier is never one to turn down a challenge though. If offered a title shot by the UFC soon Poirier notes “I would ask them where the paper is and we can do this. I like that kind of stuff. I like to take fights on short notice. Especially the guys in the UFC. They respect that.”
Only having had one fight at featherweight Poirier feels at home in the division saying of the change from lightweight to featherweight.
“I felt in the top condition. I felt great. I only had a month to (cut weight for the fight against Josh Grispi),” Poirier said. “I felt great. I felt overpowered in a couple of my 155 pound fights and Josh Grispi is supposed to be a strong, big 145 pound fighter, and I felt strong against him so I think I’m going to do pretty well against my next competition.”
Based on how Poirier garnered his win over Grispi many fans and MMA journalists would be quick to label Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier as a scrappy fighter. This may be an unfair of Poirier’s skills though and Poirier believes he has the abilities to scramble, take people down, hip switch, reverse wrestle, but is aware that when he get in there with a guy that’s been doing it for a long time sometimes he has trouble with them. Poirier said that the plan with these type of fighters is to control the wrestling by controlling your hips and holding you in one spot. He also believes that grinding the fight out on the ground can be boring, but can be a winning strategy.
Having just over half of his wins coming by (t)ko, Poirier currently has three submission victories to his professional record and several submission wins on his 8-1 amateur record as well. Such validity and being so well rounded is to be expected from a top level fighter, but if you look through The Diamond’s repetoir of coaches and trainers you won’t find Crazy Bob Cook, Shawn Tompkins, Greg Jackson, Jon Howard, Jorge Gurgel, Matt Hume, Randy Couture, or even Steven Segal. These renound coaches that have been at the helm of so many successful MMA champions, but cannot accept any credit for the success of Poirier’s dominant breakthrough at featherweight. So who is the mystery man behind Poirier’s success? “I’m a purple belt under Tim Creuder,” said the unappologetic Poirier who currently trains at Gladiators Training Academy in Lafayette, Louisiana.
Only glancingly has he ever considered going elsewhere to train, but does admit that he has mulled the idea of training at a wrestler-heavy camp to work on his ground skills. Otherwise, Poirier feels that quality and diverse training is close at reach and they don’t necessarily have to come from big name camps.
“I have a couple black belts in driving distance. A couple brown belts, a couple purple belts so I’ve got my juijutsu as much as I can handle locked down and I’ve got strength and conditioning coaches and I have a nutritionist,” Poirier said, “I’ve got all the juijutsu I can comprehend and understand. I’ve got great boxing coaches, great kickboxing coaches, and I’ve got a couple collegiate wrestlers that moved down here. I’ve got Kyle Bradley in Baton Rouge, Rich Clementi. So if I need info or I need training partners I have my hands full.”
Poirier has been featured in a documentary following the fight career of himself and others called Fightville. This newcomer to the UFC is poised to make a huge impact in the featherweight division in the next few years. The best is yet to come for this dynamic and young 145 pound juggernaut in the making who will have his work cut out for him at UFC 131 when he faces superb grappler Rahni Yahya in his quest for UFC gold.
Dustin Poirier can be contacted on Twitter @DustinPoirier. To view the trailer for the documentary Fightville featuring Dustin Poirier you can visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVC_dCBrqbU