UFC veteran Dustin Poirier fell short of his ultimate goal of becoming a world champion in the UFC not once but thrice. Interestingly, in all three of his title fights, Poirier was choked out. And according to a former UFC champion, it’s one particular habit and not his ground game that is Poirier’s biggest weakness in fights.
In a recent episode of the ‘Jaxxon’ podcast, hosts Bear Degidio and Rampage Jackson were joined by Luke Rockhold and T.J. Dillashaw. The quartet shared their thoughts on several topics in the world of MMA. Chief among them was Poirier’s recent loss to Islam Makhachev.
While sharing their thoughts on the fight, Rockhold brought up a habit of Poirier that was on display during the fight. He stated that Poirier’s need to pull up his shorts every time was a distraction for him to have during fights. He further delved deeper into the same saying,
“Can we get a count on how many times Dustin Poirier pulls his shorts up? Because it is unbelievable. It bothers me because its like as a fighter if you’re trying to be the best fighter you can be why would you wear something that compromises it?”
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Rampage Jackson went on to agree with Rockhold. He stated that if he were fighting against someone who had a habit of pulling up their shorts, he would time takedowns at the exact same time that the fighter goes to pull up his shorts.
Now all that said, despite this perceived weakness in his game, Poirier has secured some extremely big wins in his career. But is the loss against Islam Makhachev it for the former interim lightweight champion?
Dustin Poirier to end his career on the back of a title shot loss?
In multiple interviews leading up to UFC 302, Poirier had stated that this could potentially be his last fight in the UFC win, lose, or draw. He has given too much to the sport and every time he was in camp, it was time being taken away from his family.
Even after his loss he reflected on his career and told the crowd that he could still compete with the best.
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However, he did not know if it was worth it. Poirier has a lot to think about. He has spoken about what else was out there for him too fight for, if not the title. He understands that the chances of him getting another crack at undisputed UFC gold is very slim. So is he willing to go back to the end of the line and start climbing the ladder again?
