Dustin Poirier Happy to 'Right the Ship' at UFC 299, Still Harbors Championship Dreams

Based on his own lofty standards, UFC 299 wasn’t the typical Dustin Poirier fight.

After all, the American Top Team product has faced Conor McGregor three times, fought for undisputed lightweight gold twice and headlined numerous cards over the course of his career. While Benoit St. Denis entered UFC 299 as a rising star on a five-bout finishing streak, he didn’t necessarily fit the profile of the usual Poirier opponent.

“It was kind of a timing thing and the situation of the lightweight division. There wasn’t any big names to fight,” Poirier explained at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “I wanted to fight, especially coming off a loss. Nothing was big that they could put together.

“But this guy is on a streak and has a lot of momentum. When they offered it to me, that’s why we did it. There was nothing else at the time, and I honor what I do, man. Eddie Alvarez gave me a shot when he was a former champion and I was an up-and-comer. You have to do it. That’s the nature of what we do.”

For a while, St. Denis gave Poirier all he could handle. The Frenchman pressured his opponent, landed punches and elbows in close quarters and outgrappled Poirier on the canvas in the opening frame. That continued in Round 2, as “The God of War” assumed full mount early in the stanza. That’s when Poirier found another gear, and he eventually dropped St. Denis with a picture-perfect right hook before sealing his come-from-behind triumph with a standing-to-ground shot at the 2:32 mark of Round 2.

On the heels of a head-kick knockout defeat to Justin Gaethje last July, it was exactly the type of rebound performance Poirier needed.

“It feels good to right the ship, take a chance, fight a guy outside of the Top 10 — my last opponents have been former world champions, huge main events, huge fights,” Poirier said. “And now you’ve got this young guy in his 20s who’s finished his last five opponents, representing France, got a lot of momentum behind him and a country behind him. I’m like, you know what, ‘Let’s see if I still got it.’

“It was a long training camp. It was stressful. I had a lot on my back and it feels good to win.”

Although Poirier was getting the worst of things in the opening stanza, he also was able to make some valuable observations about his opponent’s abilities.

“I thought he was gonna want to grapple. I really did,” Poirier said. “I was surprised at his punching power. In the moment in there, I didn’t feel like he was a big puncher. He looked like a big guy, and he’s finished guys on the feet — he’s finished all of his wins. But I thought he was gonna be a bigger puncher. When he was landing those shots, there wasn’t that much knockdown power behind them. I was surprised by his strength. He was pretty strong.”

While St. Denis did enjoy some moments with his grappling, Poirier also put himself in some precarious positions by jumping for a guillotine on multiple occasions. It’s not something he’ll ever regret.

“He was physically strong. But I thought technically, I know he comes from a judo background, I thought his hips and his grip strength was gonna be better against the fence,” Poirier said. “I took myself down every time. When I was on the mat, it was because I jumped guillotines. And you miss all the ones you don’t jump, first of all. I thought he was going to be a ittle bit tougher with the takedowns against the fence.”

At 35 years old, Poirier has a lot of mileage on his body after years of fights against some of the sport’s biggest names. There’s still one goal that’s eluded him, and that’s capturing the UFC lightweight title (aside from a brief reign as interim champ in 2019).

“That’s the only reason I started fighting was to be the world champion, to be the best in the world, undisputed,” Poirier said. “But we’ve got to see. I’ve got to get home and see what makes sense with my coaches, with my wife and my management and just see what’s next.

“I’ve done a lot in this sport. I’ve been fighting for a long time … I’ve done a lot and I’ve checked a lot of boxes, but there’s one that’s still unchecked and that’s being a world champion.”