Dustin Glenn Poirier born January 19, is an American professional mixed martial artist. As of April 16, , he is 4 in the UFC lightweight rankings. Poirier was born in Lafayette, Louisiana , and is of Cajun heritage. Poirier turned professional in , quickly compiled a record of 7β0, competing mostly in regional promotions across his native Louisiana and the Southern United States.
Aldo then had to withdraw from the bout due to a back injury on November 23, Poirier agreed to step in and face Grispi at the event on January 1, Jung defeated Poirier via submission D'arce Choke in the fourth round. Poirier quickly returned to action, taking his second fight within 63 days as he stepped in as a replacement for an injured Dennis Siver.
During the fight, both fighters landed punches which appeared to hurt the other. Poirier scored leg kicks and double leg takedowns. Swanson retaliated with head kicks and submission attempts. He won the bout by unanimous decision. He told reporter Ariel Helwani that Swanson must "be a man". This was the first time Poirier was stopped by strikes.
After the match, Poirier said: "I always saw it as a plus but the Conor McGregor fight was the turning point. I remember I was backstage getting ready to walk out and I saw him and he threw this smile and pointed at me. I don't know why but it really got to me, man. It really messed with my head. After the loss, Poirier transferred up a weight class to the Lightweight division. Poirier said that it was because weight cuts were distracting him from training.
He also claimed that he would never go back to featherweight nor move up to welterweight. He had a lay off for six weeks due to the injury. In return, Miller repeatedly kicked Poirier's legs. Later on, Miller swept Poirier onto the mat and failed a kimura attempt. Poirier won the back-and-forth fight via majority decision. With the Texas commission not operating under the new unified rules, referee Herb Dean declared the fight a no contest , as he did not believe Alvarez knew Poirier was a grounded opponent at the time.
