April 14, 2018, Fight Night Glendale. Dustin has just knocked out Justin Gaethje in a wild, back-and-forth slobberknocker of a main event that lasted into the fourth round. Poirier got his hand raised that night, but he didn’t emerge unscathed. His opponent’s brutal leg kicks had left him on crutches, and he wore sunglasses to cover some of the souvenirs Gaethje’s significant strikes had left behind.
In his hobbled state, the post-fight presser became an improvised affair, with Poirier sitting on a folding chair while we in the media huddled around him in a scrum. And it was here that the tone shifted. After completing yet another unforgettable, Herculean battle, “The Diamond” went tender as he reflected on his career to that point.
“I just want to go to sleep with that belt around my waist one night, and tell my wife, ‘I did it.’ Years and years ago…my wife…” he explained, his voice cracking with emotion, “I didn’t have a car. She would drive me to weigh-ins. We would sleep in broken down motels, and I would fight the next day. Just me and her. And I just want to say, ‘I did it.’”
Nobody in earshot had a dry eye that night, and I get a little misty even thinking about it. In an ocean of big Poirier moments, that’s the one I’ll always remember. — Steve Latrell