Dustin Poirier won an instant-classic battle with Dan Hooker at UFC On ESPN 12 on Saturday night, but even so he wasn’t entirely satisfied with his performance.
“It was a tough one, man,” Poirier said afterwards. “Dan came to fight. He’s a tough guy. He’s on the rise and really thought he was going to get passed me.
“He talked a lot of trash, like, he was going to move forward and fight the champ — but I’m the champ. This is what I love to do. I put all the work in. I trust in my team, skill, and work ethic. I came here, pulled another one out, and had a few more rounds in me.”
“I could have been a little bit sharper. I didn’t move out of the way of a few shots. It’s not that I disrespected Dan’s power, but I stayed in the pocket too long. I should have been sharper.
At the end, I started getting in my range and countering off his lazy shots. I landed some good ones and made his head snap back.
“I was stealing the rounds with shots like that, but I can do better.”
As for what comes next, Poirier is understandably going to take some time out to be with his family and rest up, so it might be a while before we see him again.
“Maybe I’ll fight at the end of the year. Maybe I’ll fight next year. I just want to go home to my daughter.
“I’m a winner and it was a long time off. It was the longest break in my career. I had to take nine months off and sit on the sidelines. I had to overcome some stuff.
“Now that I’m a victor again, I want to get back to the drawing board. I want to keep getting better. I want to stay in love with this sport.
“I don’t want to push myself so much to where I hate this. I’ve been doing this a long time and pushing myself to the limits every day. So I just want to do it right.”
