Following UFC 318, a lot of people were saying Dustin Poirier’s performance against Max Holloway merited more than the two 49-46 scores awarded to Max by the judges.
But now that the freshly retired “Diamond” has watched the fight back, he says he agrees with the scoring.
“I watched it that night with my team,” Poirier said on the Ariel Helwani show. “Being in the eye of the storm and the way you’re feeling with the adrenaline and the shots your landing and going back to the stool each round, it felt
a lot different than what it looked like from outside when I watched it.”
“I see how he won those rounds,” he admitted. “He was busier, throwing more volume, landing more body shots, just adding up scores in the piggy bank. And I watch it back, I can see myself — I wouldn’t say hesitant, but not pulling the trigger like I should have been, not being as offensive as I should have been.”
“I think that was subliminally done, just self-preservation, just trying to get back safe. Knowing this is the last one, at the end of the night the rankings didn’t matter, my next fight didn’t matter. Not that I pulled back. I gave it my all. But I could have put myself in harm’s way to maybe make something happen for sure.”
Asked if he regretted not doing that, Poirier took a long moment to think.
“I don’t think so, man,” he finally said. “It could have been horrible ... I could have been knocked out, my brain could have been shaken up worse. So it is what it is. I tried to fight a smart fight, be a professional, protect myself at all times, and land shots that I thought were good counters or good timing when he was open.”
“It is what it is, like the man himself says. I tried to finish him, but I didn’t put myself in harm’s way as much as I did in the past.”
Dustin Poirier leaves the sport with a 30-10-1 record and no undisputed UFC title, but few will be able to match his resume when it comes to the quality of opposition he faced and the entertainment he delivered in the cage against them.
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