Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
After a hard fought Fight of the Year contender, Dustin Poirier is looking to take the rest of 2020 off.
After a nine month break following his disappointing (and largely one-sided) loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov, Dustin Poirier is back.
And while it did take him two rounds to shake the ring rust off and start beating Dan Hooker on volume and the judges’ scorecards, by the end it looked like “Diamond” was back in flow state and enjoying the war of a Fight of the Year candidate the main event at UFC on ESPN 12 had become.
Check out the highlights from his unanimous decision win right here.
So the big question, of course, is how soon can we see Dustin in the cage again? There was a lot of speculative talk leading up to this fight that the winner of Poirier vs. Hooker could be next for Conor McGregor, or could get a quick turnaround on Fight Island. But the UFC will have some convincing to do if that’s what they want out of Poirier, because he sounds ready to step back and take another rest.
“I don’t know, maybe I’ll fight at the end of the year … maybe I’ll fight next year,” Poirier said during his post-fight interview with Jon Anik. “I just want to go home to my daughter. You know I’m a winner, man, and it was a long time off. The longest break of my career in forty fights. Had to take nine months off and sit on the sidelines. Couldn’t put weight on my leg for eight weeks. I had to overcome some stuff and now that I’m a victor again I want to get back to the drawing board, keep getting better.”
“I want to stay in love with this sport, I don’t want to push myself and work myself that I hate this,” he continued. “I’ve been doing this for a long time and pushing myself to the limits every day. So I just want to do it right and give it my all the right way.”
That general sentiment was echoed by Poirier on social media again when ESPN’s Ariel Helwani tried to pump up the idea of a fight with Tony Ferguson.
Damn!! Let me rest bruh!!! https://t.co/RgP5aOV0Co
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) June 28, 2020
Ah well. Take the time you need to recover and not burn out, “Diamond.” You deserve it!