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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

If you weren’t in Dustin Poirier’s inner circle, you’d never know his triumphant knockout victory at UFC 299 was the culmination of something much bigger than just a fight camp.

On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Poirier said his knockout loss eight months earlier to Justin Gaethje sent him to a place of “darkness” that had him worried for his own well-being.

“I started actually doing therapy after the [Gaethe] fight,” Poirier said.

Poirier said he related strongly to the struggles of former UFC featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski, who teared up describing the restlessness and mental strain that prompted him to take a short-notice rematch with lightweight champ Islam Makhachev. Volkanovski lost the fight by vicious head-kick knockout.

The same strike felled Poirier in his rematch with Gaethje and prompted a journey inward that led to a few significant lifestyle changes, not the least of which was seeing a mental health professional.

“A lot of people helped me,” Poirier said. “My friends, my business partners here in Louisiana, but my wife, really, dude, I’m just very thankful for her. It got to the point where, and if I was in her, if I was in her position, I don’t know if I could take the stuff she’s taken. I would like to think I can, but I’m just grateful to have somebody like that [to see the things I’ve gone through], and the things I’ve put her through going through it.”

Poirer and his wife, Jolie, were high school sweethearts who married and raised a family as he became a professional MMA fighter. The two now run Poirier’s nonprofit, The Good Fight Foundation, in addition to other projects.

Poirier said the loss to Gaethje caused an identity crisis where he questioned whether he would continue fighting. He said going to therapy helped him reframe the way he looked at himself as a fighter and a person outside of his job.

“Because fighting was everything to me,” he said. “It was my whole life. Like I judged who I was but by fighting. It was the person I am. If I’m not the fighter Dustin, the fighter who am I? And I just kind of like tried to take a step back from that after the Gaethje loss when I was going through all this s***. And like it’s just something I do. Fighting is part of my life. It’s been a vehicle to get me and my family where I need to be to set up the foundation and help people. It’s been a vehicle to get things in the right place. But this is just something I do. Life goes on.”

Training for the Saint Denis fight, Poirier cut down on the media he consumed in his off hours, went for morning walks to clear his head, and even stopped responding to certain family members as he got closer to UFC 299. All of it was to help stay in the present and practice a sense of gratitude for his life.

“Maybe I’m getting old, maybe I’m being an old man,” he said. “I’m just trying to, like, experience things in a different way, because I’m so blessed, just to be in this mindset.

“I’m just really grateful for the experience of life, providing for my family, every day, wake up, walk 30 minutes in my own thoughts, get away from electronics and just give gratitude, because what a journey, what a journey, man.”

Poirier feels like he emerged from that dark place and is now much more optimistic about the future, however long he has remaining in the sport. He called for a title shot against current champ Islam Makhachev in June, an opportunity he believes is justified given his recent win and his overall resume.

Down the road, Poirier plans to keep a therapist in his corner so everything stays in the right perspective.

“I think it’s important to like open up and talk about how you feel,” he said. “You know, we’re such in the spotlight of being tough guys all the time, but we’re people too. That’s the part of the mindset, like, Dustin the fighter. But what about, what about Dustin? What about me? … So it’s good to tap in with yourself, and check in on yourself, and be good to yourself.”

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Let’s go!
| BJPenn.com

Not quite the “billionaire” he was expected to become, but certainly better than any MMA fighter before him.

Nearly eight years ago we told you Conor McGregor was money … we just had no idea how much.

The former whiskey mogul is now among the 50 highest-paid athletes of all time, according to a new list from Sportico, raking in roughly $ 555 million in inflation-adjusted earnings in the years following his Octagon debut at UFC on Fuel TV 9 more than a decade ago.

That may explain all those “Notorious” lawsuits.

McGregor placed 50th behind NFL quarterbacks Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers, tied for 48th with $ 560 million apiece. The only combat sports athlete to crack the Top 10 is retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., who generated more than $ 1.48 billion across his career.

Assuming he cashed all those crumpled checks.

“For so long, in my mid-to-late 20s when I started to acquire wealth and acquire money, I was fascinated with materialistic things, I would buy myself cars, watches,” McGregor told Tony Robbins. “I switched off of that. I realized I was spending things on material items and not things on myself, on my being, on my fitness, on my health. [LeBron James] spent $ 1.5 million a year annually on himself — physical therapists, masseuse, nutritionists, trainers, all of that. I spent $ 0.”

He did, however, get a shiny new super yacht.

McGregor, 35, could add to his total if and when he returns to UFC, where former “Ultimate Fighter” coach Michael Chandler patiently awaits. “Notorious” remains the promotion’s top pay-per-view (PPV) draw but has remained inactive in the years following his UFC 264 leg break in Las Vegas.

See you this fall?

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts

Paulie Malignaggi says Anthony Joshua showed there are levels to boxing.

On Friday night, Joshua faced Francis Ngannou in a 10-round heavyweight boxing match in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. It only lasted for two, though, as Joshua trounced the former UFC heavyweight champion, dropping him twice before knocking him out cold in just the second round.

Heading into the bout, many gave Ngannou a real chance to upset Joshua. Malignaggi was not one, and now that’s it’s over, he said the fight played out much like he thought it would.

“Going into this fight, there were some people thinking that the power of Francis Ngannou was going to be problematic,” Malignaggi said on his YouTube channel. “Listen, a guy who is that strong is always kind of problematic. I think the momentum for Francis Ngannou came from his performance against Tyson Fury. I think, though, that let the cat out of the bag. Everybody realized, OK, Francis Ngannou is somebody to be taken a bit more seriously than the average bear, than the average guy who comes over from MMA to be a punching bag. He was actually somebody who made the proper adjustments in boxing, and demanded that kind of respect. …

“But still, my bottom line going into this fight was, even if he has all the basics down pat — and he had the basics down better than other MMA fighters who came to boxing, especially in the footwork department — it still was the basics. So a guy with a little bit more versatility, to his style, a guy with different layers to his style, a guy who was going to bring in those different layers to a fight was still going to confuse him. Because once the fight got not basic, there was nothing Francis Ngannou was really going to be able to do, except hope to get lucky with a lucky punch.”

Malignaggi knows a little something about boxing. A two-weight world champion with an overall record of 36-8, “Magic Man” has spent much of the past few years in an analyst role with the sport, and he gave an in-depth breakdown of exactly what Joshua did to dismantle Ngannou.

“You see Ngannou knows how to think in there, but he doesn’t have the experience necessary to know how to use even the things he wants so use,” Malignaggi said. “He’s always going to be basic. Joshua using those level changes, rhythm changes, jabbing upstairs, jabbing downstairs, using those feints with the feet, with the shoulders, jabbing off the jab, not jabbing off the jab, doubling up the jab. He went through the entire repertoire of knowing how to lead with his left hand very, very well. …

“That lead hand was able to set up the power, it took away all the confidence of Ngannou, it took away Ngannou’s ability to get into any kind of rhythm and get into any kind of power comfort where he would be able to be comfortable throwing his power shots and make Joshua uncomfortable. That’s kind of the difference here, with the layers in boxers. A solid boxer in a boxing ring is going to have all those layers where a guy who is not fully focusing on boxing his whole life is not going to have.”

But despite the one-sided nature of the matchup, Malignaggi isn’t all the way out on Ngannou as a boxer. The former WBA welterweight champion gave “The Predator” his flowers, but suggested that a step back in competition is in order if he wants to continue in the sweet science.

“I think Ngannou has a lot of ability,” Malignaggi said. “I think if Ngannou had focused on boxing his whole career he may have gone places. He went the MMA route and that’s fine, he had a terrific MMA career.

“Ngannou, even if he stays in boxing, I think he’d have to take a step back, take on a top-20, top-25 guy. Which is still ahead of the curve considering this would only be his third pro fight. But going against two of the top three heavyweights in the world … that’s kind of a hard place to start.”

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Former interim lightweight champion, Dustin Poirier has once again campaigned for a title fight with undisputed divisional gold holder, Islam Makhachev – after receiving an offer to fight the Russian as soon as June, off the back of his knockout win over Benoit Saint-Denis over the weekend at UFC 299.

Poirier, the current number three ranked lightweight contender, co-headlined UFC 299 over the course of the weekend in Miami, turning back the surging Nimes native, Saint-Denis with a huge second round KO – after battling through massive adversity throughout the opening round.

Fighting off numerous submission attempts from the streaking French prospect, Poirier managed to wobble and bring Saint-Denis to one knee with a cleverly-placed uppercut in close, before then cannoning off a huge right hook counter, knocking out the Frenchman in front of a raucous crowd at the Kaseya Center.

And receiving an outright offer from Dominance MMA leader, Ali Abdelaziz to fight his client, Makhachev in an undisputed lightweight title fight as soon as June – Poirier himself then called out the pound-for-pound kingpin for a summer title showdown.

Dustin Poirier previews Islam Makahchev title fight

Receiving backing from promotional CEO, Dana White, who claimed the Lafayette native’s stardom reached a new level off the back of his win over Saint-Denis, which he described as “legendary”, Poirier claimed he may line up an almost patented guillotine choke attempt on the Russian should they meet next.

“I’ll never stop jumping guillotines either,” Dustin Poirier told MMA Fighting. “But, he (Benoit Saint-Denis) never took me down neither. I took myself down like five times.”

“I don’t know, I need to stop [attempting guillotine chokes], but I will never,” Dustin Poirier said defiantly. “Yeah, I hit it a lot [during training], I hit it a lot, I put people unconscious – never in a fight though. Maybe I’ll submit Islam (Makhachev) with it.”

Himself sidelined since October of last year, Makhachev most recently headlined UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi, UAE – landing a blistering first round high-kick knockout win over former undisputed featherweight champion, Alexander Volkanovski in the pair’s rematch.

Can Dustin Poirier end the title run of the dominant Islam Makhachev?

LowKickMMA.com

On Friday, the night before UFC 299, former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou made his second appearance inside a boxing ring against former two-time champion Anthony Joshua in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In his debut, Ngannou faced boxing legend Tyson Fury and went the distance.  Ngannou scored a knockdown in the third round but came up short losing via split decision.  His performance against Fury lead to the fight with Joshua.  

Ngannou was knocked down by Joshua in the first frame.  In the second round, he hit the canvas again.  When he got up, and the fight was resumed, Joshua connected with a straight right hand that visciously crumbled the former UFC titleholder.  

During the UFC 299 Post-Fight Press Conference on Saturday, UFC CEO Dana White commented on Ngannou’s loss and wasn’t surprised by the result.  

“Going into the Fury fight, if Fury trained for the fight and showed up looking like he ate Tyson Fury that’s probably how that fight would have ended,” White said.  “You know how I feel about crossovers into boxing.  That’s how the end.  Just like that.”  

Ngannou is expected to return to mixed martial arts later this year.  “The Predator” inked a multi-fight deal with the Professional Fighters League in May 2023 but has yet to fight under the PFL banner.  His first PFL opponent is expected to be Renan Ferreira.

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MMA: Mixed Martial Arts