Only a few fighters in the UFC are genuinely considered by a ‘draw’, with Jorge Masvidal being an example of one recent addition to the field, and Dustin Poirier should also now be added to the list according to his coach Mike Brown.
“I don’t know how many main events in a row, but it’s quite a lot,” Brown told MMA Junkie. “I feel like he’s carrying a lot of these shows. He’s a guy everybody wants to see, of course he’s my friend, but as a fan, there’s only a few guys like him out there. Every fight delivers, every fight is ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate, and if it’s not that, that’s because somebody got put away really fast. If it goes any distance, it’s going to be wild.”
It’s hard to argue that Poirier doesn’t bring a high level of action and entertainment every time he fights, and with his only loss in his last seven fights being to current lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov he’s not only holding down the No.2 spot on the 155lb rankings, but has also taken the No.9 spot on the official pound-for-pound rankings too.
“At the end of the day, if it’s about pulling weight, if you’re a draw, if you’re the guy people are paying to see, then you deserve the money,” former WEC champion Brown said. “Obviously he’s a draw. He’s a guy people want to see. He’s a guy that puts on a show. He’s a guy that delivers every time. Every time is wild chaos. It’s ‘Fight of the Year,’ it’s ‘Fight of the Night,’ somebody is getting messed up. He delivers every time.”
As such, Brown is now calling for Poirier to either get another title shot or at the very least a blockbuster fight against another proven draw.
“I don’t think there’s a rush. Let’s look at the landscape, let’s see what’s next. In a perfect world, for me a title fight, but maybe there’s a big exciting fight out there.
“I know for him it’s about something that gets him excited. It needs to be something that gets him excited, something that motivates him, something that puts him in the gym and gets his fire going and makes him push himself to the max. That’s what he wants, especially when you’ve had so many high-level UFC fights. It takes a while to get that fire going. I mean, they’re out there but it’s not just about taking any fight. He’s been at it for so long, it needs to mean something to him. We’ll see what they come up with.”
