Dustin Poirier recently confirmed that he will indeed fight in the UFC again despite contemplating retirement after his loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 302. “The Diamond” wants to plan his exit from the sport by going out in front of his home fans in Louisiana.
MMA retirements never tend to last too long, just look at Donald Cerrone’s recent comments, and this likely isn’t going to change as the sport continues to age.
During a recent episode of ESPN MMA’s Good Guy / Bad Guy show with Daniel Cormier and Chael Sonnen, Cormier said that he was never convinced that Poirier would step away. He said that the former interim champions ability to still compete at the highest level meant that he wouldn’t ride off into the sunset just yet, even if he was suggesting that this was more than likely.
Sonnen followed this point up by referencing something that he would do in his childhood in order to receive words or praise and encouragement from his peers. He said that in art class, which he was hit and miss at, he would parade his best pieces of work around and say how bad they were in order to draw compliments.
Sonnen believes that fighters do a similar thing in order to hear the kind of appreciation that makes them feel validated.
“I did this when I was a little kid. Daniel, as I became an adult, I still did little things like that, I just did it fewer and further between and I swear, I do feel that some of these guys just so that we’ll pat them on the head and tell them, ‘No you’re so great’, I swear they’ll say like something bad about themselves to get the rest of us to go, ‘No, hey, you’ve got more.’ I do feel that way sometimes.”
Sonnen then spoke specifically about Poirier and his decision to make the walk one or two more times.
“I imagine it is hard to go and physically, Dustin has it. Mentally, Dustin has it but he’s got that little kid in him somewhere that wants us to constantly tell him, ‘Hey Dustin, you still got it.’ Well, I’ll buy in. Dustin, you still got it.”
