Dustin Poirier is one of the best lightweight fighters in the UFC today and he has been such since moving up to the weight class in 2015. Poirier began his UFC career as a featherweight and interestingly, he never fought at that weight class before. The Diamond was campaigning as a lightweight during his pre-UFC days but decided that 145 was the weight that he was going to compete at in the big league.
Despite having a walking weight of 185 to 190 pounds, making 145 in a 2-3 month training camp wasn’t that hard because Dustin was very young back then one month prior to his 22nd birthday. He won his first four bouts, including a win over future champ Max Holloway, before suffering his first loss to The Korean Zombie. He won four out of his next five bouts but after his UFC 178 knockout loss to Conor McGregor, a 26-year-old Poirier decided that the pre-fight weight loss was beginning to take its toll on his growing body. And so he decided to move up in weight class.
“I want to fight until I’m at least 35 years old. I’ve had weight cuts where I’ve felt my back hurting and stuff. I don’t know if it was my kidneys, [I’ve been] so dizzy that I’ve almost fainted. It’s ridiculous, you know,” said Poirier before his UFC lightweight debut in 2015. “I’m done with that, I want to be healthy and I want to be happy. This is the kind of job where you have to really love what you’re doing because otherwise you’re wasting your time. I think these next fights people are going to see who I really am as a fighter.”
He was correct. Poirier won five out of his first six bouts at 155 pounds. After a no-contest against former lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, he put together one of the greatest four-fight stretches in UFC history. The Diamond defeated former champions Anthony Pettis, Justin Gaethje, Alvarez ( in a rematch), and Holloway (again). The bout with Max earned him the interim UFC lightweight title.
Since moving to 155 pounds, weight loss has never been an issue for Poirier who has never missed weight in his 30-fight UFC career. In his last bout, Poirier tipped the scales 156 pounds, officially making weight with the allowed one-pound allowance. Poirier went on to put Saint-Denis to sleep in round 2 of their UFC 299 showdown last March 9th. Interestingly, Poirier is already 35, the age he targeted to at least continue fighting at back in 2015.