Do not be wrong about it: Dustin Poirier is still at the top of his game. Even at 36, he remains among the most dangerous fighters of the UFC standing and in the mat. He has victories about Conor McGregor, Michael Chandler and Benoît Saint Denis in recent years.
So why, despite a classification No. 6 between lightweights and a main fight in UFC 318 against Max Holloway in New Orleans on Saturday, do you plan to take off your gloves forever?
Everything is reduced to the family.
“My wife and I have been together for a long time, since before fighting, so she has been in this trip with me,” Poirier told NBC News last week. “She has been asking me to stop fighting for a long time, and also my daughter.”
After 30 victories in 40 fights, a curriculum composed mainly of total wars that have made him a fans favorite, Poirier has followed his advice. Lafayette’s native, Louisiana, will be in front of the crowd of her hometown and compete for the last time, ending a legendary career.
Poirier said his long -term health was an important factor.
“I want to be there for my long -term family,” he said. “I want to see my daughter getting married and always being there for her, not only physically, but also mentally. I want to go with my faculties. This is not good for you. Being kicked and thrown and beaten in the head for 18 years is not good for you.”
Poirier said he officially reached an agreement with the decision after his last fight against Islam Makhachev in June 2024. In that fight, a loss of submission of fifth round, suffered his third defeat in a championship. He previously fell to Charles Oliveira and Khabib Nurmagomedov, respectively, with the belt on the line. The UFC will usually only give so many shots in a title.
He would probably have needed another winning streak to return to the dispute, he said, and his age, with wear on his body since he began fighting at age 17, it didn’t seem to happen soon.
In front of Holloway on Saturday for the “BMF” belt of the UFC, a title that distinguishes the “Motherf’s badly from promotion”, is a good consolation prize for years of exciting fights. He could go out to the octagon in front of the crowd of his hometown, beat another fans and go with gold around his waist.
It would be the perfect end to one of the most historical UFC races.
Poirier emphasized how important it was to get out of the sport before the sport took it out. Too many combatants over the years have entered the cage beyond their best moment with the skills and athletics in decline and suffered damage that alter life.
He said he still feels good enough to compete at a high level, so it was a difficult decision to leave now.
“I am not forced to get out of this,” he said. “I am choosing to get away, and that is very important to me.”
Unlike most combatants, Poirier has been Franco on the prevention of neurological problems. He told NBC News before Makhachev’s fight that he was debating retirement, partly “to take care of the health of the brain.”
A year later, it is still the most important.
“It’s not something I thought when I was a small child of little or mid -20,” he said this week. “It is something that aged in sport, I began to realize things and notice things and do my research and simply grow and realize that this is not good for you. I don’t say no [become a fighter]. I just say take care of yourself. “
Poirier has altered some of his habits to help in this area. Now consume healthy fats, fish and turmeric oils, creatine, use hyperbaric cameras and have intense training limited before fights.
His opponent on Saturday has also been opened on the subject. Before his fight for the title of UFC 308 against Ilyia Topuria in October 2024, Holloway talked about the importance of brain health.
“You just get a brain. Once that thing begins to deteriorate, it’s not like anything else where you can grow again,” he said. “Be intelligent, go see specialists, go see doctors, go to investigate your own health and take care of yourself. At the end of the day, that’s what it is. I don’t want to be a vegetable when I age.”
The UFC has taken measures to help athletes protect their brain.
According to the promotion, a five -stage protocol will be used to determine if a fighter is suitable to return to action after a brain shock. Each fighter also has an immediate complete exam by a commission doctor and an UFC doctor after their fight. They may be asked to undergo a CT brain exploration, a brain exploration of magnetic resonance and/or have a neurology monitoring evaluation.
The promotion has also supported the brain health study of the professional athletes of the Cleveland Clinic. Since 2011, more than 900 athletes have participated in tests that will help determine the long -term effects of the repetitive head of the head and the factors that put certain people with greater risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The UFC has contributed more than $ 2 million to the cause.
“If I had a way of identifying people who run the risk of these long -term effects, then hope is that they could treat them early or advise people,” Dr. Charles Bernick, founder and principal researcher of the study, told NBC News. “Some of the athletes when they are active in their own health of the brain, so they can make decisions. That for me is the most exciting.”
The health study of professional athletes remains a continuous project, said Bernick. Its objective is to work with current and retired fighters for a minimum of five years.
“This gives us a real opportunity because some of the athletes who began as active athletes later retired during the duration of the study,” he said. “So we can obtain a perspective of what happens once a person stops fighting, ceases to be exposed to what is exposed … and try to understand why some people have continuous problems, although they are no longer exposed, and [why] Other people seem to be resistant. “
While no study has been completed only in MMA or boxing combatants, there has been in former NFL players.
In February 2023, the CTE Center of the University of Boston announced that after studying the brain of 376 former soccer players, 345 (91%) returned with a diagnosis of CTE.
Like football players, combatants know the risks of a physically demanding sport. No one understands that better than Poirier.
“Every fight, every fighting camp takes something that I can never recover. Pieces of me, I will never return,” he said. “I’m going to leave a piece of myself next weekend. That is something I have accepted. But fighting is something I do. I am a father and a husband and a business owner and a brother and a son. I am many other things. The fight is something I do.”
