Dustin Poirier is well aware of a recent video of one of his sparring sessions that was released by Colby Covington.
Poirier and Covington were once teammates at American Top Team. Things got ugly between the two once Covington’s MAGA schtick got off the ground. “Chaos” took aim at several fighters, even his own teammates. Poirier ended up being one of them and it got to the point where ATT and Covington parted ways.
Covington recently released footage from a 2019 sparring session involving Poirier. “The Diamond” was preparing for a UFC Lightweight Title bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov. In the video, Poirier is seen knocking down Felipe Douglas with a punch and then declaring, “and new!”
While Covington has expressed his belief that the video is proof that Poirier isn’t as good of a guy as everyone thinks, “The Diamond” has responded by pointing out how experienced Douglas is.
“This is a pro fighter with 20 wins.”
Poirier went into more detail during an interview with UFC Arabia (h/t MMAJunkie).
“I didn’t want people to think that was an amateur kid or something like that. That was a professional fighter. I mean, that’s what happens in gyms during hard sparring, real sparring. There’s times when you drill, and train, and stuff like that, but there’s times where you hard spar and that was a hard sparring session.”
Poirier has received support from Douglas since the video has surfaced. The Titan FC vet told MMAFighting.com that Poirier is free of any wrongdoing.
“As far as his celebration, people saying he was making fun – that’s the mindset of a guy that is fighting for a belt. I didn’t consider it disrespectful. I don’t do it, but that’s his mindset, envisioning the fight. He was about to fight for the belt, that’s his life.”
Douglas also mentioned that the reason he didn’t have headgear is because he knew Poirier wouldn’t take liberties with him. He said knockdowns often happen in sparring and that Poirier isn’t looking to hurt his teammates.
At the moment, Poirier’s focus is on Conor McGregor. They’ll be sharing the Octagon in a trilogy bout on Saturday night (July 10). Poirier vs. McGregor 3 will headline UFC 264 in Las Vegas.
