Written by Dustin Poirier | Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images
Dustin Poirier has big plans once his UFC career is over.
Later this month, Poirier will make the walk to the cage for the final time when he takes on Max Holloway for the ‘BMF’ title in the main event of UFC 318. The event was built around Poirier’s impending retirement, with the promotion heading to New Orleans specifically for “The Diamond,” and he admits he’s got a lot of emotions as he prepares to make his last walk.
“I’m scared of it,” Poirier told ESPN. “It’s bittersweet. I’ve done this longer than I haven’t. And really, I beat myself up — I don’t want to say beat myself up, I spin my wheels. I think about it all the time. I know I have a lot more to give. I’m leaving a lot of money on the table, I’m leaving great fights on the table, but it’s like, that’s the reason I’m walking away. Am I going to be the world champion? To get another title shot? I’ve had three.
“To get another one is going to be tough, and I don’t know if I have it in me to put together that win streak. But I have great fights left in me. So I’m walking away when I think I’m at my best right now. I just fought Islam tooth and nail, had a great fight, and I feel like I can still beat him. I can beat him, I think. But it’s just time.
“I’m a father. I want to have another kid. And I want to do things outside of the octagon. If I’m not going to be the world champion, then I’m just showing up for a paycheck, and that’s not who I want to be.”
But while Poirier will be sad to leave the sport, it’s not all bad news, because once he officially retires from MMA, Poirier has big plans on exactly who he wants to be; namely, swoll.
“This will be the last time I’m ever 155 pounds in my life,” Poirier joked. “I can promise you that. Listen, I’m getting on steroids. Once USADA stops knocking on my door, and I lay the gloves down, I’m getting jacked and tan.
“That’s the truth. My wife’s like, ‘No, you’re not.’ I’m getting on it. That’s the honest truth.”
Poirier is not the only fighter who was ready to embrace performance-enhancing drugs once they were out of competition, as Donald Cerrone famously did just that. But that’s not all Poirier intends to do in retirement, because while he’s stepping away from competition, he’s not leaving MMA.
“I love the sport. I watch every fight,” Poirier said. “Not just UFC, every organization. I watch everything. I’m a huge fan of the sport and I love it, and always have been. I want to stay connected to it somehow. Hopefully, keep getting on with ESPN or working the desk, just to stay around the sport and be a voice in it, because it’s created the life I have. All I know is this. I don’t have any other — so speaking about it and being connected is something that’s important to me.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to open a gym or anything like that. That’s not a passion of mine. But I would love to help fighters. I’ll still go back to American Top Team and help guys with fights, local guys in Louisiana, their upcoming fights, I try to help out as much as I can, because fighting was a vehicle to become who I am now, and to get me out of where I was. I know it can be that for other people, so I want to support them in that journey into the unknown of fighting. It’s beautiful when it works out, and it’s beautiful when it doesn’t, if you embrace it all.”
UFC 318 takes place on July 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.