After their fight, @DustinPoirier
pledges $20K to a charity of @CharlesDoBronxs’
choice
#UFC269 pic.twitter.com/hcj8Cu1lTj— ESPN MMA (@espnmma)
December 12, 2021
The concept of an “Octagon donation” after a fight doesn’t seem so
great in hindsight.
First, there was a
public dispute between Dustin
Poirier and Conor
McGregor after the latter promised to donate money to Poirier’s
charity, The Good Fight Foundation, following their second fight at
UFC 257. Now, it’s Poirier who is promising to deliver a donation
of $20,000 to a cause of Oliveira’s choosing in his hometown
following their lightweight title fight at UFC 269 on Dec. 12.
Poirier made his offer in the Octagon shortly after Oliveira
defended his belt with a submission win in the UFC 269 main event.
“The Diamond” further clarified his donation during the post-fight
press conference.
“I saw a video this week of him [Oliveira] showing where he grew
up, and where is mom cooked dinner for him. I think it was an old
video. And saw some of the sites where he grew up and how little he
had,” Poirier said. “It came to me this week, I thought, I was
going to let him know, win lose or draw, talk to him after and let
him know that me and The Good Fight Foundation would donate $20,000
to his city in Brazil, and put the money to where ever they think
it needs to be.”
Since that moment was caught on camera, Oliveira has been feeling
the pressure on social media to make use of the money that Poirier
promised him.
“I´m sure Poirier had a great intention when he said that, but to
tell you the truth I really don’t know if the proposal turned out
to be good or bad. Right after the fight, there were so many people
with bad intentions asking if I used the money or not, if I spent
the money Poirier gave me,” Oliveira told Sherdog.com. “And that
really pissed me off. I’ve always done as much as I could since the
beginning of my career helping people with my social projects with
the small [amount of] money I was making. Of course, now that I’m
better paid, I´m able to do more and help more people.”
According to Oliveira, there has been no contact between he and
Poirier since the fight, but he has had to spend a lot of time
answering questions about how he will use the money Poirier “gave
to him in the Octagon.”
“I have no idea how Poirier is planning to do that,” Oliveira said.
“I have no idea how the bureaucracy of that works. My social
project is mine. I don’t have the documentation once I invest my
own money after every fight I have.
“I just tell people that the money didn’t arrive yet, but if Dustin
really wants to make a donation and needs those bureaucracy
documents, I´ll pick some local social project in my area. The most
important thing is helping people who need to be helped, but to
tell you the truth, after all the headaches I´ve been dealing with
due to that Octagon proposal, I really don’t know if it was good or
not.”