Right after a first-round TKO win at UFC 168, Dustin Poirier revealed that Diego Brandao threatened to stab himfollowing the official weigh-ins. And it turned out to be true, as Brandao confirmed the information to MMAFighting.com.
“He was there, bouncing at the weigh-ins, staring at me. I told him backstage ‘if you ever do that again, I’ll stab you with a pen.’ That’s what happened,” Brandao said.
“Every time he saw me at the hotel he kept staring at me, and I responded asked what was the problem, if he looking like that because he was hungry or what. When he got inside the cage I saw he was scared. He got lucky (to win).”
Brandao confirms he threatened Poirier, but never meant to really stab him.
“I have a lot of things to change, including the way I speak, my personality,” he said. “People think I’m an ignorant man, but I’m a funny guy. But when I get inside that cage, I’m fighting for my family and my career. It’s hard to explain. I’m still learning, and I will be at the Top 10 one day.
“I have nothing bad to say to Poirier. He did a good job, and that fight is in the past. I’m learning with the losses, and I only lost to tough opponents. I will rematch those guys one day and I’ll be the UFC champion.”
Brandao missed weight by eight pounds at UFC 168, and he blames a car accident he suffered two weeks before the fight for his pre-fight issues.
“A drunk man hit my car, and I ended up crashing in another car,” he said. “I had to go to my lawyer. (The other driver) didn’t want to pay the costs to fix my car. I did my best, I was a warrior just to step inside that cage. Any other fighter would just run away, but I needed that.”
According to the Brazilian featherweight, he had problems cutting weight since he couldn’t train after the accident, so he ended up weighing 180 pounds a couple weeks before the bout.
“I couldn’t run, I couldn’t cut weight to fight,” he said. “I had injuries in my back and ribs, but I went there and fought. I don’t think I trained more than five times for this fight and I knocked him down twice in the first round.”
UFC officials weren’t happy with Brandao’s attitudes and by missing weight, and he ended up losing 12 thousand dollars from to the Nevada State Athletic Commission for coming to the scale eight pounds over the limit.
“Sean Shelby was pissed off, but he understood when I showed him the photos of my car,” Brandao said. “I spoke with him and Dana White, they said that I need to change and I’m going to be the champion one day. They said they know the fighters are afraid of me.”