Dustin Poirier is really going to end his career in a fight with Max Holloway in his Louisiana home town at UFC 318.
But if there is one universal rule that appears to apply to MMA, no one really has retired.
The entire pay-per-view card is built around Poirier’s swan song, but it’s far too much worth mentioning where the fighter says it’s just going to go back to another fight. John Jones barely let the ink dry on his retirement papers before declaring his intention to return home, but Poirier’s longtime head coach Mike Brown believes this is the final fight for the one-off UFC lightweight champion.
“I think so,” Brown told MMA Fighting when asked if he really believed Poire was over. “I’d never say it. He did really well for himself. He’s got a lot of money. He doesn’t have to fight.”
Putting together a Hall of Fame career along with a healthy bank account might be the best possible reason for Poirier after his fight on June 19th.
That being said, Brown knows from personal experience how people have difficult times to hear potential offers when making calls, so they can’t close Poarier’s doors completely and compete again.
In the case of Poirier, Brown says that after the trilogy against Holloway, he must be really remarkable for him to go into another fight.
“It’s going to have to be pretty appealing,” Brown said. “It can always happen, but I think he’s happy with his achievements and the money he made and the things he did.
Brown was with Poirier in many of his biggest achievements in the sport, so they formed a unique bond between the fighter and the coach.
Currently, the only mission at hand is to beat Holloway in UFC 318, but Brown hopes that Poirier’s retirement will hit him like a gut punch when the fight is over.
“I don’t think there’s any emotionality going to be in the fight,” Brown said. “I think when the fight comes, when the fight ends, that’s what happens. I think it’s business as usual now. And after the fight, after the fight, when the emotions usually come.”
Even the possibility that the UFC travels to his hometown and that popular hip-hop star Lil Wayne might walk him to the Octagon on Saturday, Poilier is truly receiving the most epic exit from the sport.
The real Cherry at the top is Poirier’s victory, and his third fight with Holloway gives him a last chance to pull away his favorite submission, the guillotine choke.
It’s become a long joke in the UFC that Poirier often jumps into that submission to end the fight, but he hasn’t actually put away the guillotine yet.
Brown confesses that Poilier, who wins that chalk at UFC 319, will be the perfect bow for an incredible career that goes back more than 16 years.
“Everyone will be pretty pleased with what I think,” Brown said of Poilier about finally obtaining guillotine choke submission in his retirement battle. “That would be pretty cool.
“You never know. I mean people didn’t think he would go to naked (Chalk) (Michael) Chandler.