{"id":835,"date":"2025-07-17T16:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T16:37:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T16:37:11","slug":"dustin-poirier-breaks-down-in-tears-as-he-receives-gesture-from-ufc-fans-before-retirement-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/835\/","title":{"rendered":"Dustin Poirier breaks down in tears as he receives gesture from UFC fans before retirement fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dustin Poirier&#8217;s 15-year career will end this weekend, and he has been going through all of the emotions.<\/p>\n<p>After UFC CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/who\/dana-white\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dana White<\/a> confirmed that the &#8216;all-time great&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/mma\/3296099\/dana-white-dustin-poirier-ufc-318-fight\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">deserved the special opportunity to retire in his home state.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Poirier boasts a professional MMA record of 30-9 and will look to reach 31 wins\" height=\"540\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/crop-3227938.jpg\" data-caption=\"Poirier boasts a professional MMA record of 30-9 and will look to reach 31 wins\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/crop-3227938.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>Poirier boasts a professional MMA record of 30-9 and will look to reach 31 winsCredit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>Poirier will <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/mma\/3375916\/ufc-318-holloway-vs-poirier-trilogy-date-uk-time-full-card-stream-tv-channel\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">end his career in a trilogy fight<\/a> against <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/who\/max-holloway\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Max Holloway<\/a> at UFC 318.<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of his final appearance in the octagon, Poirier was surprised with retirement letters in a pre-fight interview with ESPN.<\/p>\n<p>As The Diamond read the messages from key members of his career, he had to fight back tears.<\/p>\n<p>One letter read: &#8220;My man, what a ride! 15 years flew by and we all witnessed your greatness and true character as a fighter. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Your historic career couldn&#8217;t have happened to a more deserving person.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After sharing some of the messages aloud, Poirier asked: \u201cDo I have to continue?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Before ending the session prematurely, due to the overwhelming emotion, he stated: \u201cI wanna keep these.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The 36-year-old is confident he can leave the scene victorious against a familiar foe.<\/p>\n<p>The pair clashed for the first time when Holloway made his professional debut in 2012, resulting in Poirier&#8217;s first win over his rival.<\/p>\n<p>In their second outing they clashed in the main event of <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/topic\/ufc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC<\/a> 236, this time with the interim lightweight title up for grabs.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Poirier's final bow will bring down a curtain on a epic career\" height=\"540\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/crop-3386891.jpg\" data-caption=\"Poirier's final bow will bring down a curtain on a epic career\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/crop-3386891.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>Poirier&#8217;s final bow will bring down a curtain on a epic career<\/p>\n<p>It was here that Poirier extended his lead over Holloway to 2-0 via unanimous decision. <\/p>\n<p>Poirier will now fight Holloway for the third and final time from Louisiana.<\/p>\n<p>On the UFC 318 Countdown show, Poirier predicted how he will win his retirement fight.<\/p>\n<p>He explained: \u201cIn my mind, I get his timing early, beat him to the punch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI hit him with shots that hurt him, make him miss, [and] make him pay by being better that night.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a great fighter, but [on] July 19th, I\u2019m better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Holloway beat Justin Gaethje last time out and his KO power could upset the party\" height=\"640\" width=\"960\" data-credit=\"Getty\" data-img=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/max-holloway-reacts-knockout-justin-941232524.jpg\" data-caption=\"Holloway beat Justin Gaethje last time out and his KO power could upset the party\"   loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/max-holloway-reacts-knockout-justin-941232524.jpg\" role=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>Holloway beat Justin Gaethje last time out and his KO power could upset the partyCredit: Getty<\/p>\n<p>After an illustrious career it&#8217;s no surprise that Poirier received such heartfelt messages ahead of his retirement from the octagon. <\/p>\n<p>He holds a joint record with Drew Dober for the most knockouts in UFC lightweight history, with nine knockout wins\u00a0at 155lbs. <\/p>\n<p>This includes victories over a host of star-studded names including Holloway, <a href=\"https:\/\/talksport.com\/who\/conor-mcgregor\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Conor McGregor<\/a> [twice], Michael Chandler and other well-ranked talent.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>UFC fans will certainly remember The Diamond fondly. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dustin Poirier&#8217;s 15-year career will end this weekend, and he has been going through all of the emotions.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,958,1394,786,1395,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dana-white","tag-dustin-poirier","tag-fighting","tag-max-holloway","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835","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=835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}