Dustin
Poirier apparently had no grappling practice for over two weeks
leading up to his UFC 302
title challenge against Islam
Makhachev.
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Poirier made his third career lightweight gold bid against
Makhachev in the main event at UFC 302 on Saturday. While many
initially gave Poirier only a puncher’s chance and expected him to
be dominated on the ground, “The Diamond” authored a surprising
performance. Poirier gave his opponent a difficult test, denying
Makhachev on multiple takedown attempts over the course of the
bout. While Makhachev eventually submitted Poirier with a brabo
choke in the final round, the Dagestani had to struggle more than
expected.
What makes Poirier’s performance even more awe-inspiring is that he
had no wrestling practice two weeks prior to fight night due to a
rib injury. Yves Edwards,
Poirier’s longtime teammate at
American Top Team, made the revelation even though he knows
“The Diamond” probably wouldn’t have wanted him to.
“The way he performed on Saturday night man, that was super
impressive to me,” Edwards told MMAonSiriusXM. “And nobody knows this and he
probably is gonna be like, ‘Man why did you put that out there?’
But like, I know Makhachev was also not a 100%, nobody goes into a
fight a 100%. But like, [Dustin] hurt his ribs two weeks before the
fight and hadn’t wrestled and grappled for like two, two and half
weeks. For me it’s impressive man, against that guy. Against
somebody else it wouldn’t have mattered but against that guy, like
you wrestled like that against that guy with hurt ribs, okay, I’m
impressed.”
Edwards further revealed that Poirier’s rib wasn’t completely
healed even on fight night. According to Edwards, it’s not uncommon
for elite fighters to go into fights with small issues that they
have to navigate around. However, what stood out for Edwards in
Poirier’s case was the performance that he put on against the
caliber of competition that he faced.
“No [it wasn’t completely healed on fight night],” Edwards said.
“Of course it wasn’t like, ‘I can’t fight.’ But it’s something you
gonna have to work around, right… But like everybody does that,
Makhachev’s fought with injuries, [Justin] Gaethje’s fought with
injuries. Everybody does this at the highest level but the injury
and the opponent, those two things combined and then the
performance, man for me that says a lot.”