Poirier addressed life after fighting<\/a>, and talked about how tough it has been, even saying \u201ca part of me has died.\u201d<\/p>\nPoirier was asked to expound on that, and discussed the realities of moving on from something that\u2019s been part of his life for two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s harder than I thought it would be,\u201d Poirier told MMA Fighting while promoting a new partnership with Bud Light. \u201cI thought it would be a relief. When I finally put the gloves down, and I don\u2019t have this weight on my back, or this cloud over my head of getting better, or what\u2019s next, there\u2019s another fighter training to compete against me. That\u2019s been like that in my mind for 20 years. I thought it would be a relief and an exhale, and life would begin in a different way, but it kind of hasn\u2019t yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I\u2019m still processing, maybe it\u2019s going to take more time than I expected, but when you do something for this long and dedicate your life to it, every day I was waking up with a fire under me trying to be a better fighter, get in better shape, learn new tricks, ask questions. It was a journey of finding out a lot about myself, but finding it out through martial arts. And then one day you wake up and it\u2019s just not there, but the fire\u2019s still there. But the fact that I\u2019m not going to get to do this again \u2014 and any time I\u2019ve ever lost in my career I\u2019ve always righted the ship, I\u2019ve always put things back in the right direction \u2014 and now walking away from this, I know that was it. I don\u2019t get a chance to right this ship anymore, I don\u2019t get a chance to put my hands in the air again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI miss it more than I thought I would, and I\u2019m still processing it all day by day. Time heals all, but I\u2019m just hoping I get into a better flow. I\u2019ve been really just trying to keep my mind busy, staying busy doing things so I don\u2019t have time to sit around. But, God, I\u2019ve got to tell you, the days are long when I\u2019m not waking up training, coming home, training again, doing road work. It\u2019s a way of life. It\u2019s not just a sport I competed in, it was a way I lived my life, and I\u2019m still processing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poirier is teaming up with legendary octagon announcer Bruce Buffer for a new TV commercial where they work for the Bud Light call center. In an extension to the promotion Poirier, Buffer, and Bud Light are giving fans the opportunity to attend UFC 322, headlined by Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev, at Madison Square Garden. Between now and Oct. 30, fans can call 1-800-Bud-Light to submit their \u201cPTO request\u201d with the lucky winner earning a trip to the Nov. 15 event.<\/p>\n
Buffer, of course, has been part of some of the biggest moments in UFC history as the voice of the octagon, and with Poirier listening on, reflected on announcing Poirier\u2019s name for the final time.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood question, and the best answer I can give is I\u2019m a fan first and an announcer second,\u201d Buffer said. \u201cDustin Poirier is one of my favorite fighters. I like him both as a fighter, and I like him and love him as a human being. Inside the octagon, outside the octagon, he\u2019s one of the greatest role models that the UFC and the sport of MMA has ever had. His family, I\u2019ve met his entire family, they\u2019re wonderful. \u2026 People have to understand that I\u2019m not just doing a job, this is, as they say, an adventure, but it\u2019s an experience for me because I feel so close, and I have emotion for all of the fighters that I introduce \u2014 some much more than others, and Dustin is one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cKnowing that was his last fight, his family\u2019s there, his fans are watching, the long, glorious career, all of the action, everything he\u2019s given the fans \u2014 as I always say is blood, sweat and tears \u2014 I feel for him. And I know it\u2019s a grand moment for him. Win or lose, it\u2019s a grand moment for him, so I want to five every ounce of passion, every ounce of energy, every ounce of lung power I have to make that moment enhanced even higher than he\u2019s already feeling at that time. But people don\u2019t realize, sometimes when I\u2019m announcing a winner, or announcing them going in, I actually have experienced tears in my eyes, emotions during that time, and I can honestly say, Dustin, I had that with you. It\u2019s a big moment. We\u2019re brothers. We spend time, break bread together week after week, but every year, one or two times when we step into that octagon together, we\u2019re brothers experiencing the greatest moment each of us have ever had, and can have in our lives, and thank you for letting me experience that with you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, man,\u201d Poirier said in response. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely an experience every time, and more so that one \u2014 in Louisiana, you could feel the energy, the love, the people came \u2014 and it was crazy, man. I couldn\u2019t even hear the bell in the second round. And the fact that whenever the post-fight video of me laying the gloves down, I don\u2019t think a single person in that arena left. Usually when the last bell of the night rings, people are rushing to their cars so they don\u2019t get caught in traffic, it\u2019s a fight to get out.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody stayed in the arena and cheered me as I walked out of that octagon. I\u2019m just truly thankful, and felt the love from the fans \u2014 not only the fans, I felt the love from the company, and the people behind the scenes at the UFC. I couldn\u2019t have asked for more. It was an incredible night that I\u2019m never going to forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you deserved every bit of it, and I think, poetically, it went perfectly,\u201d Buffer said.<\/p>\n
Poirier\u2019s incredible UFC career includes 32 promotional bouts, an interim lightweight championship victory, a pair of undisputed lightweight championship opportunities, two BMF title bouts, along with two career-altering victories over Conor McGregor. The 36-year-old is one of the sport\u2019s all-time action fighters that led to earning a total of 15 post-fight bonuses.<\/p>\n
When a fighter retires, the big question from the MMA community is always the same: Is the retirement really going to stick? Poirier was asked if anything could get him back in the octagon.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife and my family really [don\u2019t] want me to continue fighting,\u201d Poirier explained. \u201cThe way that last fight was, obviously premeditated, we had the time to set things up and do these videos, and display parts of my career that people might have forgot about of when I was a younger fighter, showing clips to the audience and stuff. How could I ever \u2014 and it was at home in Louisiana \u2014 how could I ever do that again? It was such a perfect sendoff, I\u2019d be doing myself a disservice by coming back.<\/p>\n
\u201cNever say never, but it would take the perfect circumstances and everything for me to ever put a pair of gloves back on and fight somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dustin Poirier had one of the most perfect retirement nights in UFC history, but it doesn\u2019t mean transitioning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":229984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396,14855],"class_list":{"0":"post-229983","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-latest-news","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-ufc","15":"tag-ufc-news","16":"tag-videos"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}