Dustin Poirier wipes tears from his eyes as he recaps tough loss to Charles Oliveira.
After a UFC event where many fans and pundits alike thought Dustin Poirier would see his hands raised, UFC 269 ended up becoming another bump in the road for ‘The Diamond’.
Dustin Poirier struggled to hold back tears with the occasional one making its way out as he revealed how the loss was affecting him.
He said: “It sucks man. I worked hard to get back here, to fight for another world title and I got choked out again. I’m just heartbroken really.”
Dustin Poirier embraced his wife after his loss at #UFC269 pic.twitter.com/KQToZdZIve
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) December 12, 2021
While Charles Oliveira was the champion and has been showing off his abilities well recently, Poirier had been the favourite going into this fight. He had predicted Oliveira would leave him with openings in the fight but when asked if anything surprised him about Oliveira, he claimed his durability was what impressed him.
“His durability. He wasn’t crazy strong. I knew his jiu-jitsu was the best, I mean, most submissions in UFC history coming into this fight. That’s kind of the reason I didn’t go crazy sweeping, trying to get up that second round.
“I figured I’d rather lose the round than give him my back and lose the fight trying to scramble back up but he ended up getting to my back regardless of that. The guy’s good man, he’s the champ.”
#AndStill UFC Lightweight Champion! ?@CharlesDoBronxs taps out Dustin Poirier in the 3rd round! ?#UFC269 pic.twitter.com/sYEWnuxtsO
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) December 12, 2021
A game of inches
While Poirier was expecting Oliveira to make some small mistakes and give him the opening, Poirier compared the availability of those chances to when he fought the former champion, Khabaib Nurmagomedov.
Even looking at the chances he had, Poirier still thought he would be the champion going into the second round.
“Same thing with Khabib, it’s such a small room for error in these kinds of fights.
“I felt good. After the first round, sitting on my stool, going into the second, I was drinking water and thinking, ‘I’m going to be the world champion tonight.’ It’s such a crazy thing what we do.”
Getting used to losing
Poirier seemed particularly disheartened as he thought back on how hard he had worked to become the champion.
“It just sucks man. I really worked hard and sacrificed a lot and put myself in the position that I thought I was going to be world champion.
“I thought that I was going to come out here tonight and be the world champion or fail, daring greatly, and sometimes, this is what happens.”
It really is an unenviable situation to return to as the momentum of his push for a second title shot comes to an end but Poirier claims this isn’t the last we’ll see of him.
“I’m not a stranger to this kind of position. Nobody wants to be used to losing but I’m just used to learning. It is what it is. That’s the fight game.
“I’m trying not to sit up here at another press conference and cry in front of you guys but I’m going to continue to do what I do.”
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