During the best part of two decades, Dustin Poirier literally fought for his livelihood – but that vice grip on his head stops this Saturday evening.
After 40 professional fights, Dana White and the company will get everything out of the closet this weekend while they go to New Orleans for UFC 318. The promotion will do its best to set up a home show for the lateral lightweight bait.
In the main event he is confronted with BMF champion Max Holloway, about which he has already received the leap twice in their earlier career. He had previously plagued that he hung up his gloves last year, but insists that this is his last outing.
Dustin Poirier explains that the 'grip' fights and how he will be 'free' on UFC 318
Dustin Poirier made his amateur MMA debut in 2007 and has been fighting as a professional since 2009. Since then it has had total control over his life, which means that he trains in Florida in Florida, many of which have been documented by fans.
And speaking with the New York Post, Poirier explained that he is looking forward to finally getting away from the vice bar that competing has had for almost two decades on his life. “It's more a way of life,” he said.
“So if I put the gloves and I am actually free of fighting, I don't know. I have to go through it to get there. I don't know what the mentality is … I have been doing this since I was 17 years old, this is a way of life.
“Like I said, I have to get up and run, go to the gym, hang out with my friends on the mats and new techniques and learn like that. I've done it for a long time than I didn't do it, so it's an obstacle when it is all said and done and I am really retired, but I get through it.”
Max Holloway plans to spoil the party in Louisiana
The man who stands opposite Poirier on Saturday evening; Max Holloway, this week will have to trade his usual role as a beloved fan favorite for the heel. He comes to Louisiana as the defending BMF champion and would like to turn the trilogy around.
While his rival now has an inviolable biling lead, the last fight tends to dictate how fans think about a trilogy. And Holloway, who has just lost its featherweight gold shot at Ilia Topuria last year, wants to make a few mistakes.
“If it is a war he wants, it is a war that he is going to get,” Holloway told MMA Junkie this week. “It will be a set of knuckles there. I would not want it in any other way, especially with the BMF title on the line.”