Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint Denis was the firefight everybody anticipated.
Early on, it was the French prospect within the driver’s seat. He was capable of again Poirier to the fence, land onerous combos of knees and elbows, then transition into takedowns in opposition to the cage. Poirier was firing again, however for many of 5 minutes, he was rendered defensive beneath the Saint Denis onslaught.
Even early within the second, Saint Denis was in high place and superior into again mount. Simply because the combat seemed to be slipping away from him, Poirier escaped out the again door and promptly flattened a fatigued Saint Denis with a nasty counter proper hook (watch right here).
After the loss, it didn’t take lengthy for Saint Denis guilty the loss on a staph an infection. He claimed the an infection wrecked his weight minimize and precipitated him to tire badly early within the combat. Now, there have been rumors of staph previous to the combat, however the French fighter denied them … till after he misplaced.
In line with “The Diamond,” Saint Denis dealt with the state of affairs poorly. Poirier defined to MMA Junkie that it’s solely acceptable to carry up camp issues after a win, as a result of each fighter enters the cage with points stemming from their preparation.
Poirier defined, “You say these kind of issues — I had an an infection, I used to be battling one thing — once you win, you don’t say that once you lose. I’ve gone into so many fights with staph an infection, with fractured foot, with lacerated bicep. Staph an infection in my ear! Every kind of stuff, that’s preventing. We’re on the mats on a regular basis. All people has one thing occurring going into fights however you’ll be able to’t say that once you lose. You gotta hush it up.”
Following the win, Poirier is abruptly in competition for a Light-weight title shot. Justin Gaethje might have knocked out Poirier final yr with a head kick, however he’s booked to combat Max Holloway at UFC 300. That doesn’t line up with champion Islam Makhachev’s timeline, so there could also be a gap to combat for the belt that solely “The Diamond” can fulfill.
… so long as everyone seems to be staph free.
