Dustin Poirier successfully executed a “lateral and upward movement” of his facial muscles a second before receiving the fateful blow from The Korean Zombie Chang Sung Jung.
In short, he smiled and got hit real bad. Jung instantly reacted with his own upward movement, of his right arm; a powerful uppercut that sent Poirier backpedaling involuntarily into the Octagon fence.
Here’s an account of what turned out to be the last round of the last fight of UFC on Fuel TV 3, from Brian Knapp of Sherdog.com:
In the fourth, Jung cracked him with a searing right uppercut and backed it up with another flying knee. Out of desperation, Poirier dove for a takedown, leaving his neck exposed in the process. Jung sprawled, deftly locked in the [brabo] choke and finished it. The crowd erupted with its approval.
And Jung ended up having the last laugh, or smile.
Still, we really can’t blame Poirier for making “a facial expression which may show amusement” when he did it, as he was coming off his most successful round in the third.
Poirier got thrown down and suffered a head cut from Jung’s elbow strike in the first round. In the second, he was struck by a flying knee and a series of uppercuts before barely escaping multiple submission attempts, including a couple of triangle chokes.
In the third round, however, the Korean seemed to live up (or die down?) to his nickname and zombified. Apparently worn out, Jung limited himself to a standup striking mode, and Poirier had the upper hand in landing more punches.
In fact, Jung said post-fight, “He had me in trouble at the beginning of the third round. The thought of giving up was in my head, but I just kept going, and I came out with the win.”
Poirier may have thought he had seen the best—or worst—from a “fading” Jung. After surviving the first two rounds and winning the third, momentum and superior cardio were already seemingly on his side.
Thus, the beaming smile.
Now, smiling during a fight is a known psywar tactic, largely to mock an opponent to throw him off his game.
It could mean, “There’s nothing you can do to hurt me,” or “I’m gonna get you now,” or “That’s your best shot?!”
In Poirier’s case, it could have been his way of saying, “Now it’s my turn…” to sleep.
Some people are blessed with magnetic smiles, and Poirier is one of them.
Unfortunately, it attracted the wrong steel, a weapon spearheaded by four knuckles.
And that missile was far more accurate and formidable than the aerial joke launched by North Korea a month ago.
All quoted words used in defining “smile” were taken from “The New Lexicon Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language (1993 edition),” and I’ve had this book for years and it’s only now that I realize it’s got a long title!
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