Dustin Poirier: The Diamond Of Lafayette
Few days away from closing this decade, there is a lot of talk about who’s the best fighter of the Decade and the best fighter of the year. One Thing is sure in this decade the UFC continued their job to make MMA Mainstream and to be as far away as possible from the old “Cage fighting” idea (from the change of rules, Women’s divisions, the Reebok deal, the way they promote events). And if an older part of the fans misses the wildest era, the underground quality of it, most MMA fans rallied massively behind the UFC like they do behind the NFL or the NBA. Despite all their efforts, MMA is still infested by the connection of shady politicians and businessman. Far away from that there is few fighters who are true role model and fights literally to put in front of MMA the words respect and humility.
In the last three years, nobody did it better than one true warrior who never forgot where he came from and used his well deserved fame to help his community. This brave fighter is known as “The Diamond”. If Dustin Poirier got his nickname due to his tough fighting style when he started MMA, I think it is more than accurate to say that he now earned this nickname due to his precious existence in the MMA world.
MOVING BACK TO LOUISIANA.
Dustin Poirier was born in Lafayette, Louisiana in 1989. He is of French descent and Cajun heritage like many Louisianan. He was raised by his mother and his grandmother, as a young kid the Diamond got into a lot of street fights that later got him his '“tough” reputation, which caused him to drop out of high school where he met his future wife, Jolie. Living in a poor neighborhood, Dustin turned all his focus into fighting MMA. The Documentary “FIGHTVILLE” followed his rise through the local scene and once Poirier signed with WEC, he already had a personal connection with the fans due to the popularity of the documentary.
Many years later, Dustin lives in Florida with his lovely wife Jolie Poirier, he trains at American Top Team and is a top 10 lightweight in the UFC. Dustin is a very popular fighter mostly because of his fighting style and some epic fights. Dustin and Jolie’s life changed when their daughter was born in August 2016. Both coming from broken families, they wanted Noelle not to have go through what they did earlier in their life. Dustin to add “Now I fight for my Family, I want my daughter to have a solid household, a college fund, and the crazy thing is that I can give her that through my sacrifice in the cage. Punch by punch and with my mindset”
Even though he trains in Florida with Mike Brown as head coach, Dustin decides to move back to Lafayette because “that’s where my heart is”. The tattooed southpaw who felt rejuvenated as a father will still train with ATT but his home will be in Louisiana where everything started. If Dustin’s father and husband responsibilities turned him into a new man he was also changing as a fighter. After losing important fights due to not being responsible defensively Dustin was working hard to improve his defense. Even though he promised every fight week that he won’t get into brawl the Diamond could not help himself but got into wars every two or three months. But step by step he got better at it and managed distance better and picked his spot as the long time prospect started to become a real veteran of the cage. Those improvements got Dustin a big opportunity. After a great victory over Jim Miller in January 2017, Dustin got offered to fight former lightweight Champion and MMA Legend, Eddie Alvarez at UFC 211. The Diamond planned on spending family time after the Miller fight but the fighter in him could not refused such an opportunity to share the octagon with Eddie Alvarez.
During UFC 211 Fight week, Dustin also announced that he will be auctioning his UFC KIT on E bay to raise money for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Lafayette. Poirier did his best during every interview to announce this. His fight with Eddie Alvarez was an absolute war who stole the show in a stacked PPV. Dustin made a great job in round 1 of fighting behind his jab and keeping Alvarez at distance, but it’s in round 2 that the fight took a dramatic turn. After landing a thunderous left hook on Alvarez, Dustin went for the finish and throw a flurry of punches that almost took out the legend who’s been there many times in his career. After a long series of wild exchanges Alvarez ended up landing several illegal knees to Dustin’s face which cause the fight to be stopped and called a No-Contest. During the post fight interview, Alvarez tried to explain to the crowd that he was just fighting and isn’t a dirty fighter but got boo’d from the audience. Dustin took the mic and ordered the crowd to stop booing Eddie Alvarez and to show respect to the legend. That was all class.
Dustin was very close to get the biggest victory of his career but at least this particular fight showed how dangerous this “new” Diamond was and that he could compete with the elite of the division. More importantly, a few weeks later his UFC kit was sold for 5,100$ that would go directly to the Harvest Bank and would help making 3,000 meals.
In November 2017, Dustin Poirier faced another former world champion, Anthony Pettis in the main event of UFC Fight Night 120. And for the second time he will auction his bloody UFC Kit for one charity cause that many Americans can relate to. Lafayette Police officer, Michael Middlebrook tragically lost his life in his line of duty in October. Leaving behind him, a wife and three daughters. Not only the family has to deal with this tragic event but they found out that the late officer’s health insurance will not continue at the current rate. Instead, they would be subjected to the retiree-level health insurance and have their premiums increase by 125 percent. During fight week, Dustin used his main event spot to talk about his desire to help the family and promised to go himself visit them and give them the money he raised. The bloody UFC kit from the diamond was sold for 7,500$. He defeated Anthony Pettis in the third round. After an excellent back and forth grueling fight where both men had success it’s the will of the Louisianian that got the better of the body and the mind of the former world champion.
THE GOOD FIGHT FOUNDATION
In April 2018, Jolie and Dustin created the Good Fight Foundation, a non profit. For their first charity action they decided to once again auction the UFC kit of Dustin as he was facing another elite lightweight fighter in Justin “The highlight'“ Gaethje in the main event of UFC Glendale. This was one of the most awaited fight of the year and they used this platform so that the Acadiana Outreach Center can help women and children experiencing homelessness and poverty. The thought of kids starving is something that haunts Dustin as he saw that all around him when he grew up on the poor streets of Lafayette.
“Every time I cut weight, I think about it. I’m literally starving myself. But I know that I’m going to eat like a king after it. I can’t imagine what it feels like not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.”
The biggest advantage of the foundation is that Dustin doesn’t need to just sell his UFC Kit every time he fights, it created a platform where people can donate money and where they can create long terms plans. Dustin Poirier fought two times in 2018 but all year long he talked about the good fight foundation with the help of his wife and local associations. But as the diamond kept winning fights and getting closer to a title shot the platform got bigger and bigger. He’s even been named an American Cancer Society 2018 Spirit of Hope Honoree & was honored through a gala during the summer. So while his back to back finishes of Justin Gaethje and Eddie Alvarez made him climb the rankings, he was able to help more and more people from Lafayette. If the Gaethje fight auction kit helped feeding homeless people, the Eddie one helped giving backpack and computers to poor people so that they can study in school in better condition. For Thanksgiving they also served food for the people who could not afford a meal. Dustin’s popularity got him to sign a contract with the brand Everlast who also joined the Foundation, in order to get other athletes to join the cause which happened with the next two future opponents of the diamond in 2019.
THE DIAMOND
After two big years, Dustin was finally ranked in the top 4 of the lightweight division and went on a violent winning streak. His fight with Justin Gaethje was one of the best fight of the year and this victory was a statement about Dustin’s improvement and never give up attitude. He got this one through blood sweat and tears. Dustin was then entering 2019 waiting for his title fight. After a few months of negotiations with the UFC that almost went bad, he finally got a chance of becoming a UFC World champion when he faced the featherweight champion and top pound for pound fighter, Max Holloway for the Interim Lightweight Belt at UFC 236. it was Dustin fourth consecutive main event but his first time headlining a UFC Pay Per View. It doesn’t get bigger than that in this sport in terms of platform and The Poirier family decided to use this opportunity to do something beautiful.
Aaron Hill was a young boy from Lafayette, with a rare incurable genetic brain disorder. Aaron loved to play on the playground and was a sweet kid but the disease quickly made him unable to live the regular life of a young kid. As his health deteriorates he started to lose vision and had to use a wheelchair. The Make A Wish foundation contacted Aaron’s parents to know what would be the incredible wish that they hope they could achieved for Aaron. Aaron’s dream was to get a special needs playground built in his school so that his classmates can have fun too. Aaron tragically passed away before his wish could become real. Few months later Dustin and Jolie heard the story of Aaron and his parents. Dustin was touched by the incredible generosity of a six years old child in his condition. “That was selfless". It takes someone with a great sense of compassion to get moved by another one.
So as he was getting ready for the biggest fight of his life, Dustin was telling Aaron Hill’s story and explained his desire to get enough money to build that playground with a plate in Memory of Aaron. Through the help of ESPN, the UFC and Everlast he got other fighters to auction their fight kid. Therefore, Alan Jouban (a fellow Lafayette UFC fighter) auctioned his fight kit to help the cause. Cub Swanson, former opponent of Dustin did the same thing a few weeks later but the most surprising one was coming from Dustin Poirier’s direct opponent, Max Holloway. After their five rounds all time classic war, Holloway and Poirier got a moment together backstage where Max offered his signed gloves in hope that this would be enough to get the construction of the playground.
This was truly the night of the diamond, he entered that fight with all the pressure in the world on his shoulder and he shined as bright as he ever did. After hurting Holloway several times in round 1, Dustin had to survive the comeback from the all time great Hawaiian and had to dig very deep to get that victory. That’s my five rounds fight of the year. Without a doubt. After thirty pro MMA fights, Dustin Poirier was finally a world champion, and was for a long time a champion outside the cage.
In August of 2019, The special needs playground was built, with a plate in memory of the life and wish of Aaron Hill. The most beautiful thing that’s been said about what Dustin and the good fight foundation did was coming from Aaron’s mother herself.
“ I’m sorry to say that we are not MMA fans. And I was a bit cautious that my son’s name will be connected to a fighter but once I met him I realized he’s an amazing man. He’s a gifted athlete but he also has a heart and a compassion for helping others so what an honor to have Aaron’s name connected to Dustin.”
In May 2019, Dustin Poirier was awarded the Key to the City of Lafayette for his work with the Good fight Foundation and his contributions to the community. In this opportunity he repeated what he said in the cage in April that without the support of his wife, Jolie nothing would have happened, she’s the one who picked him up many times when he would lose faith. The Southpaw fighter is so proud of his heritage that he has a fleur de Lys tattooed on his left hand. That symbols represented the royalty in France but is also visible on the Acadian flag. On his left hand he also has the word “Faith” tattooed and on the right one he has “Inspire” tattooed. He deserves those words because everything he build in his life happened through punches, and it sure took a lot of faith to get there and he did inspired all of us.
Because Dustin Poirier’s story is not just the story of that win streak. He did eventually lost the biggest fight of his life so far, against undefeated undisputed lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. But he lost with so much dignity and class. If Dustin could not hide his tears and was hard on him he gave the champion all the respect in the world. Respect, that he got back as Khabib said to him post fight that him and his father respected Dustin Poirier more than anyone else on the roster for his personality and his heart. Khabib then followed the list of people helping the good fight foundation as he sold Dustin’s UFC shirt and sent him all the benefits. UFC president, Dana White offered to match Khabib’s money and Dustin received around 200,000$ for the good fight foundation. When he started on his own, Dustin got a little over five thousand USD, two years later through sacrifices and hard work he ended up with that much. This money served to build a water well in Uganda and much more. The good fight foundation became so big that it can even help people through the world and not just only Louisiana anymore.
This journey is far from over for Dustin who should be back in the cage in spring this year after a successful hip surgery. The most beautiful thing in this is that even when his MMA career will be over, his legacy will still continue to grow as the diamond found his way to shine, though love and compassion to others.
This is why I would like to take the time to celebrate the year of Dustin Poirier who helped everyone to be a bit better and inspired so many. He really became the King of Lafayette. Long Live the King. ⚜️
“Years later, I will not be fighting anymore, but I will still be helping the people of Louisiana. That’s what it’s all about” “
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