Diamonds Are Forever: Dustin Poirier vs. Dan Hooker
Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
Dustin Poirier was fighting himself.
On paper and by the odds, Poirier’s fight at UFC on ESPN 12 was one that he absolutely had the tools to win, off running a gamut of the best in the world; however, the biggest concern was where Poirier was in his career. A fighter who (somewhat uniquely) wore his heart on his sleeve in the cage, Poirier has always appeared a bit more vulnerable mentally than perhaps he deserves to be seen, and yet his last fight was the sort that could break anyone’s will. He never had the right idea to deal with Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Dustin's despondency as the rounds went on in Abu Dhabi sharply contrasted to the signature swagger he brought to each elite he battered leading up to it.
Poirier had rebuilt time and time again, but that very fact was another concern; with an all-time great fight already behind him at 145 with Chan Sung Jung, Poirier went on a murderous run at 155, full of fights that tested him in every way. Even passing those trials necessarily came with absurd mileage, which had to catch up some time. The fact that he was out for longer than ever before, with an injury that required surgery in that time, only intensified that concern. Poirier had a meaningful challenge across from him, but he was also fighting his own body and mind.
Poirier’s opponent was a former featherweight who’d grown to be a fairly big lightweight, destined to be a gatekeeping action-fighter before moving up and cutting through the lower-tiers of a new weight-class, who recovered from his misstep at lightweight to become stronger than ever before; in terms of style, Dan Hooker was very different to Dustin Poirier, but in terms of narrative, he was eerily similar. For Hooker, this was the rough analog of Poirier’s first fight against Eddie Alvarez, where the action-fighter could become an actual threat to the belt; Hooker had some messy performances behind him — same as Poirier at that time — but a win over Poirier would’ve left him undeniable regardless.
With his career seemingly poised for a downturn off a domineering loss, and facing a ghost of his past (entrance music and all), Dustin Poirier won yet another fight the only way he knew how; Poirier didn’t just prove to the better man, but also proved to have the bigger heart and the ability to take a licking and keep on ticking. “The Hangman” seemed to take over — as many of Poirier’s opponents have — but Lafayette’s legend cheated the gallows once again.
Part I: Paying The Cost
Poirier’s fight against Hooker was largely described before it happened as a question of range; Hooker was the longest man that Poirier had faced recently and could enforce that length decently, but showed against a valiant Paul Felder that he was immensely vulnerable on the inside — exactly where Poirier was most dangerous. The pertinent factor seemed whether Poirier could close the longer man down, through Hooker’s sharp jab and solid outside-footwork, to take him past the range where Hooker could kick and into a position where Hooker had shown to fall apart a bit in layers. Early in the fight, though, the dynamic almost seemed switched; Poirier competed with Hooker on the outside, where Hooker looked better offensively in close-range than ever before. Hooker had the better initial read, or so it seemed, as Poirier was working out his answers to Hooker’s offense.
Hooker started out looking to strand the shorter man on the outside, which was the obvious route, behind his jab (which he did fairly well against a southpaw) and his kicks. Hooker did a solid job calf-kicking through the first two rounds, as Poirier didn’t really have the distance right to counter it with the straight down the middle the way he did Gaethje and Alvarez.
Two things to note. First is that Poirier immediately started to kick with Hooker, despite being a somewhat undextrous kicker (with a hip surgery behind him, no wonder why); Hooker enforced “his” range, but Poirier didn’t need to be the better kicker to kick Hooker back. The second is the obvious with Hooker, which is how he looked to dissuade Poirier’s shifting entries; Poirier feinted, and Hooker brought his signature rear-knee up, looking to catch Poirier as he leaned over his feet or changed his level to start his trademark flurries forward.
On the lead, Hooker’s most consistent damage-dealing tool was the left hook. Earlier in the round, he looked to draw out Poirier’s response to the jab and hook around it, but Poirier looked to smother the jab as he turned his elbow up to deflect the hook…
..so Hooker found more success with a different setup, throwing his right to the body to set up the left hook to the head, getting some nice connections as Poirier backed out. Hooker wasn’t a prolific body-puncher against Paul Felder, but Eddie Alvarez had some success in the rematch against Poirier by leading to the body; City Kickboxing did some homework, and this was something Dustin had to adjust to.
As round 1 continued, Poirier started to stand his ground, running Hooker onto his signature right-hook and even the rare rear-hook at one point as Hooker went body-head; Hooker could no longer get his combinations for free, as he was demonstrably outgunned in longer exchanges once Poirier started to work out his counters.
Hooker could keep Poirier at bay on the outside, but where he dealt most of the damage was actually on the inside, often past the pocket; Hooker looked like a surprisingly good infighter, and generally did some very good work with Poirier against the fence. In particular, his rear-knee worked well to stand Dustin up (better than it did on the counter), and he did a very nice job digging to the body as he had Poirier squared up (including when Poirier looked to control him with the double-collar tie, in a very Rick-Story sort of way). Hooker still didn’t prove to be anything defensively in those exchanges, but the range did allow him to smother the exchanges a bit better than he could in open-space; when he wasn’t diligent in doing that, though, Poirier could just wait for an opening and punch him in the head, as he did in round 2 when Hooker just fell into a rhythm of alternating body-hooks and uppercuts.
Hooker took some real damage at the hands of Poirier in both of his preferred areas, but for the most part, Hooker fought a great fight early; Poirier needed to create offense on his own, and he (on paper) had the tools to track down someone extending the distance. Hooker had some answers to those too, but “The Diamond” found a way.
Hooker did a nice job in the early going disrupting Poirier’s shifting early in the fight with the counter-jab; Dustin seemed a bit wild and didn’t always cover them well, so as Poirier went to orthodox, Hooker could stop Poirier in his tracks. Poirier needed to hide his shifts, and he seemed to find a solid answer in round 2; Poirier could throw away his left hand to draw out the counter-jab or the frame, and shift after Hooker to cross-counter it from orthodox.
Even despite Poirier finding his range through the first two rounds, however, Hooker nearly had Poirier finished at the end of the second frame. “The Hangman” had his best moment due to his counterpunching, which is perfectly serviceable but was also helped by Poirier getting a bit too aggressive shifting after him; Poirier squaring up in the pocket is a chronic problem for him, one that got him wrecked by Michael Johnson in 2016 and was mitigated a bit by the jab he developed later (more on that later). Poirier shifted into the pocket and swung with Hooker square, and was forced to bail out as Dan committed to just drowning Poirier in volume — despite eating some truly nasty counters throughout the sequence. One knee out of the double-collar tie later, Poirier was on wobbly legs, and he had something to overcome.
Part II: Being The Boss
Round 3 is where the striking swung massively in the favor of Poirier, and this was both a function of Poirier adapting and of Hooker fading. Poirier had gotten hurt badly at the end of round 2, but stayed composed and went into round 3 staying the course; in contrast, despite aiming much of his efforts at his opponent’s body, Dan Hooker went into round 3 the more worn man. Part of it was Hooker struggling late to start with, as he seemed to wilt in a fight fought mostly at his own pace against Paul Felder, but the more noteworthy thing might be the absolutely freakish endurance of Dustin Poirier. It wasn’t in doubt after his fights against Gaethje and Holloway, but Poirier’s evolution from a featherweight glass-cannon to one of the most durable lightweights on the planet is truly remarkable.
Poirier’s tactics through round 3 were largely the same as those in round 2, but with a bit more success as Hooker slowed. The same shifting combinations worked, with Poirier now starting to sit down on the initial left hand (instead of using it as a throwaway) since Hooker couldn’t really do anything about it anymore, and he started looking to counter the jab with his right hook.
Poirier had taken the calf-kick away earlier, or at least taken away Hooker’s ability to get it for free; the distance wasn’t right for Poirier to just blast him with straights down the middle, but Dustin started checking them and eventually used the kick as a cue to shift in with a counter-combo. Both of Hooker’s free long scorers weren’t really there anymore.
Poirier’s clinch game was on display from round 2, but it reappeared in one of round 3’s biggest moments; Poirier’s success as a swarming fighter had always benefitted from his strength in the clinch-to-pocket — where he can grab short collar ties and hit off them — and against Hooker, he did some nice hitting off breaks — hitting off wrist-ties and collar-ties — and following up in combination as always.
The issue for Poirier, despite winning rounds with the striking, was his decisionmaking. As he tired, Hooker looked to wrestle Poirier, and he didn’t do a particularly great job of it; however, Poirier made the baffling choice to drop to his back with guillotines. In a fight he was starting to take over on the feet, Poirier conceded large portions on his back, risking a win (what plausibly could’ve been a finish) on the judges weighting control appropriately. Happily, they did, but — considering that the same choice sunk Poirier in his title bid against Nurmagomedov — one might’ve expected Poirier to be less enthusiastic about leaping to his back.
Despite all that, on the feet, the fight only widened in the favor of Poirier as the fight continued into the championship rounds, and this was a product of Poirier making an adjustment this time, partly through round 3 and definitely through round 4. It was a simple one, and arguably something he should’ve done all along (although Hooker was far more diligent about the distance earlier in the fight, which would’ve made it harder): the jab. Poirier pushed Hooker back behind his jab and dealt a great deal of damage without needing to shift in, and controlled the fight effortlessly when Hooker wasn’t looking to grapple him.
Poirier knocks Hooker’s mouthpiece out with a counter-jab, as Hooker looks to feint into range.
It’s very clear how much Poirier benefits from an attack that keeps him in his stance. Poirier can jab and get behind his shoulder, and run Hooker onto more jabs for trying to pursue him. Not much of a building performance from Poirier’s jab since he didn’t start it early, but it kept him safe late rather than forcing him to shift into range when he didn’t really need to.
By the time round 5 came around, the tactics of Poirier hadn’t really changed since the start of his takeover, but Hooker stopped being able to deal with it whatsoever; the jab and the shifts were as viable as ever for Poirier, Hooker ate counters for jabbing himself, and trying to pressure at this point just got him walked into straight lefts that rattled him to his boots. The early rounds were reasonably close, but by the time the fight ended, the better man was in no doubt; “The Diamond” had done essentially everything meaningful in the fight past the fifteenth minute, even if he’d come dangerously close to self-sabotage. While the scores suggested a somewhat close fight, Hooker really only had a single clear round, and the general non-use of 10-8s made the decision seem uncomfortably close. Hooker could put some pressure on “The Diamond”, but breaking him is something else altogether.
Concluding Thoughts
Dan Hooker put on a valiant effort against Poirier, a fairly smart one for as long as his lungs could carry him; he seemed to have ideas to deal with some of Poirier’s specific tools (such as his stonewall, with his combination work off entries to the body) and with Poirier’s legendary indefatigability. The way Hooker smashed Poirier’s body, there really aren’t many other lightweights that can be trusted to hold up, and Hooker standing up to the blows of a pound-for-pound tier puncher is as impressive a showing as any chin has had in recent memory. The downside for “The Hangman” is the mileage that this fight represents — in a stretch of about a year-and-a-half that has largely been defined by that very thing for him. While he looked better than ever against Poirier, the damage he took was immense, and in addition to a messy fight with Felder and the absolutely ruinous outing against Edson Barboza, Hooker is likely on borrowed time. However, for a fighter whose process is built so fundamentally on limiting long exchanges, Hooker has become an action-fighter of the highest degree, and that’s something of value.
For Poirier, another war is as legacy-defining as it is bittersweet. Even the fights meant to be steps back for Dustin aren’t particularly easy, and while a lot of the difficulty he had in Las Vegas was his own doing (the guillotine pulls), Hooker proved not to be a tune-up in any sense. In terms of longevity, it’s an awful way for the fight to go; ideally, the most elite fighters and the most reliable action-men are two distinct groups, but Poirier has somehow rolled both into one, and that can’t possibly last much longer than it already has. In terms of legacy, though, Dustin Poirier is absolutely bulletproof; with a win-list as impressive as any lightweight ever, Poirier has taken the fight to every one of them, and returning triumphantly from a loss as devastating as the one he sustained at UFC 242 is something that many title-challengers never do. If he retires tomorrow, he’s one of the greatest-ever lightweights; if he keeps going, it won’t necessarily take a belt for him to develop a claim to being one of the greatest-ever, period. With the work he clearly put into becoming a different fighter — after that fateful loss in September 2016 — his status is paid in full.
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