The deadly culture of extreme weight cutting in mixed martial arts can and has been fixed in places, but it hasn’t yet in the UFC. During an interview with Nick Dwyer for Everlast, Poirier offered the simplest suggestion. As have many fighters before him, Poirier moved up a division, and found even greater success.
“I’d recommend that to pretty much everybody,” said Poirier. “You’re just happier with training camp, you know? You can enjoy it more, you enjoy fight week more, it’s better for your body, your mind. It’s just better for everything. There’s a point when you do this long enough where you’re going to hate the process of starving yourself and being low on calories and nutrients all through camp and then having to sacrifice two or three months of hardcore dieting and then show up and still have 20 pounds to go, it just makes it not fun.
“You should enjoy your job, you should enjoy the process of preparing for fights and being at your best and I just think that’s the way the sport should be moving. Diego Sanchez just did it this weekend and I hope things continue to go that way. I know I feel a lot better.”
If everyone in the UFC moved up a division and no longer had to cut hard, the fights would be better, the fighters wouldn’t endanger their health and even lives, and the UFC wouldn’t see endless fights canceled from botched weight cuts.
Poirier fights Nate Diaz in the co-main event of UFC 230 on November 3 at Madison Square Garden, New York, New York. Some fans have argued that Poirier should have waited for a title shot at the winner fo division champion Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. former champ Conor McGregor
“Every fight is a gamble; you never know what’s going to happen. But I’m not the kind of guy to sit around and wait, you know? Even if I would have done that, there’s no telling when the winner of Conor-Khabib would be ready to defend the belt again. And even if they did make a quick turnaround, if Tony Ferguson beats Anthony Pettis, he was the interim champ so I believe he’s probably ahead of me. I’m not just going to sit around and wait a year for a title shot.
“I enjoy fighting and I enjoy training. I still enjoy it, so I don’t want to sit around for a year. I like to be in training camp, pushing myself, learning, getting better and this kind of fight right here is a fight that made a lot of sense to me. It’s a fun fight, a guy that I’ve been watching for a long time, a guy that I’m a fan of- him and his brother- and it’s a legacy fight for me.”
Poirier has won nine ‘of the Night’ bonuses, while Daiz has a record 15, tieing him with Joe Lauzon. Poirier was asked if the fight at 230 would be another one.
“I hope not,” he replied candidly. “‘Cause that means we’re both taking a lot of damage. But we’ll see, I have that in me. If the fight goes to that, then of course, it’s going to be that. But I’m trying to be clean and sharp in there, I’m not trying to have a brawl.”
Lastly, Poirier discussed his non-profit The Good Fight Foundation, which most recently delivered 500 backpacks, school supplies, and computers to local schoolchildren.
“The bigger the fights get, the bigger the platform I have to raise money for my community and things like that. It was an honor to be recognized by the American Cancer Society last month. I’m very proud of that, I had no clue that I was even in the running for something like that, to even be voted for, or for that to happen. It’s amazing, man, I really appreciate that people are noticing things that I’m trying to do in my community.”
