Dustin Poirier was arrested for public drunkenness after an ugly altercation at Atlanta’s Hartfield-Jackson Airport recently with police bodycam footage showing the former UFC interim lightweight champion challenging a police officer to a fight before the situation eventually calmed down.
In the aftermath of the incident, Poirier released a statement admitting “I’m at the point where I need some help” while also confessing that he’s struggled in the wake of his retirement from fighting. Of course,
Poirier is far from the first fighter to deal with problems after calling it a career but fellow retired UFC veteran Matt Brown doesn’t buy that this somehow ruins his reputation despite his arrest and subsequent footage released that didn’t exactly paint “The Diamond” in the best light.
“I’ll say this about the Dustin Poirier situation, I don’t know Dustin personally, but from what I know of him in the public eye and experiences that I hear from others — we can’t let one night define Dustin Poirier,” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “That’s all it comes down to.
“Dustin is in the public eye and he’s known as a good guy so we see that and it’s just so out of character for him. So we start questioning what his mental health is? I think he’s perfectly fine. He recognized the problem, said ‘I need help.’ What’s that saying in [Alcoholics Anonymous]? Acceptance is the first step or whatever. He accepts it. He knows where he’s at. He’s going to be fine. I don’t think this is a big story. I don’t think it’s a big problem. To me, that does not define Dustin Poirier. I know who I believe Dustin Poirier is, and I don’t think that person is gone. I think he’s still a good dude. I think he’s an intelligent enough guy. We hear him speaking. He’s not punch drunk or anything. He had a f*cking bad night. Airports f*cking suck anyway.”
While Brown doesn’t downplay the severity of the arrest or the accompanying video, he’s already seen Poirier address the situation head on and he didn’t ignore the issues he’s dealt with since retirement.
There’s no way to make the arrest just go away but Brown is confident Poirier is going to get his act together and that’s really the key for the future.
“If this becomes a common thing, like others in the sport where things like this become common news, we should probably have more public conversation about this person needs help,” Brown said. “I think he’s going to be perfectly f*cking fine. He owned it.
“It’s not just nothing at all. But he owned it. Good to do that, Dustin. Own it, fix it and because you’ve been such a good dude, and because you are a respectable fighter in this community, we’ve all got your back, bro. Now go take care of yourself. We’ve got your back. Just don’t repeat it.”
As far as advice that Brown could offer Poirier after he also called it a career following 15 years spent competing in the UFC, the veteran welterweight says there were two keys that made a huge difference in his adjustment to a life after fighting.
“The first one, you can’t be afraid to lower yourself,” Brown explained. “When I say lower yourself, I don’t mean that in a negative way but you can’t be afraid to start something from scratch again. For instance, not saying I’m the perfect guy, but when I opened my gym, I had a hard time at first because I’m a famous fighter and I would do seminars all over the world and I’d do these seminars and there’s 50, 60, 70 people there sometimes. In my head, I’m like I’ll open a gym and there will be 50, 60, 70 people first day. I open the gym and there’s two people.
“But it’s because I didn’t lower myself. I didn’t think about for those people to fill up those seminars, they’re marketing, they’re calling people, getting people in. I had to do that and one of the things I did, one of the first weeks I had my gym, was I got a list of people, and I started calling people myself. I could have hired someone to do that. I just went ahead and did it myself. I called them personally, and I said that will be something meaningful for them. Started getting people in and the next week we had 10 people and then 20 ..now we have over 400 members. I had to put myself back to the beginning, because you are doing something new in the beginning.”
Brown says the second piece of information that really helped him after retirement was a book he read that helped rewire his brain in the way he approached his everyday life as he started new businesses and became something more than just a UFC fighter.
“The second one, I always suggest every fighter, every person in the world read this book. It’s called As a Man Thinketh [by James Allen],” Brown said. “The title pretty much says it all. It takes a f*cking hour to read it. It’s one hour on audiobook. I used to listen to it everyday. As a man thinketh, so he is. The whole book is very, very simple, just all the words, the language that you use with yourself. The way that you speak to yourself internally can change everything in your entire world. For instance, when fighters coming and maybe they’re getting ready for a fight, and I’m like what are you going to do in this fight? ‘I’m going try my best.’ Well are you going do what’s necessary or are you going to try your best? Even that little bit of language can change everything.
“Just having that more affirmative language can just change everybody’s life, pretty much everybody really. I think we all do it. I catch myself doing it all the time. Kind of getting rid of the word ‘try’ — like Master Yoda said do or do not, there is no try. I think that’s just a very powerful thing. I got all that stuff from that book.”
Brown fully expects Poirier to seek out the help he needs, and he’ll eventually find a way to move forward now that his fighting career is over. While the arrest wasn’t the best look, Brown knows Poirier is so much more than one of the worst moments of his life.
“As long as he takes care of himself and again, don’t f*cking do it again,” Brown said. “Actually do take care of your shit, which I think he’ll be perfectly fine doing.”
