The Lightweight division has seen its fair share of incredible fighters throughout the years.
Despite never cashing in on either of his two undisputed Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) title bouts, Dustin Poirier has had such a stellar run at 155 pounds that he often finds himself amongst the all-time great chatter. In Poirier’s shortcomings specifically, he fell to who many recently debated rightfully should hold the No. 1 spot in the division’s history between former champions, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira.
Poirier feels Nurmagomedov is an obvious name to mention, but offers one that he feels flies heavily under the radar.
“That’s a tough one because the legacy goes back so far,” Poirier said at UFC 281 media day when asked about Lightweight’s greatest of all-time fighter. “Most dominating has to be Khabib, right? What gets me mad is we don’t even bring up Yves Edwards’ name when we talk about the best Lightweights of all time. He was uncrowned Lightweight champion of the world when he beat Josh Thomson. That highlight we see every show opening of him having his back and turning away with that head kick, that was the championship. I think his name should be brought up in these conversations.”
Long affiliated with Poirier’s gym, American Top Team (ATT), the 46-year-old Edwards (42-22-1, 1 no contest) retired from mixed martial arts (MMA) competition in Nov. 2014 and has since continued working within the community, helping fighters like Poirier. Additionally, Edwards has gotten into the analyst side of the sport as well as commentary where he’s started working Invicta Fighting Championship events in the play-by-play role.
Edwards aided Poirier with some preparation ahead of his hopeful rebound performance this weekend (Sat., Nov. 12, 2022) against Michael Chandler. Also speaking at media day today (Weds., Nov. 9, 2022), Chandler expressed how he anticipates a slugfest with his fellow knockout artist. “The Diamond” heard the comments, rebutting that it wouldn’t be the wisest choice for the former three-time Bellator titleholder.
“If it does [turn into a slugfest], I’m gonna clean ‘em up,” Poirier said. “He knows deep down he doesn’t want to do that.”
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