Harshad Patel
Daniel Cormier admits that he’s not a fan of the headlines surrounding Dustin Poirier’s potential retirement ahead of UFC 302, primarily because Cormier recalls having similar thoughts himself.
“The problem with bringing up the retirement is it becomes the story of the fight,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel.
Poirier is set to challenge Islam Makhachev for the lightweight title in the main event of Saturday’s pay-per-view event in Newark.
To be fair, “The Diamond” isn’t bringing up retirement on his own; he has been asked about it in nearly every interview over the past couple of years. Given that this might be Poirier’s last chance to capture undisputed gold, the topic naturally dominates the storylines.
Although Poirier has repeatedly stated that a decision won’t be made until after the fight, the possibility of retirement lingers, making Cormier realize that the end is near for his fellow Louisianan.
“I hate that, I honestly cannot stand that,” Cormier said. “I can’t stand hearing that it’s almost over for a guy that we all universally love and enjoy when he’s inside the octagon.”
“I also hate it for another reason: I hate it for the idea that it could be almost over, and he recognizes that. I don’t like when athletes — because I did it myself, so I’m almost judging myself — I don’t love when athletes put a timeline, or a finishing point on a career that’s still actively going on.
That is a hard thing to do, because I will tell you this right now:
The life after the fight, while it may be hard to adjust to initially, when you look at it from the inside and you’re going through those training camps and everything’s so tough, and you’re exhausted.
And you’re fighting one of the most dangerous people in the world, the other side seems very nice. The other side’s even better than you could ever imagine.”
Cormier was in a similar position to Poirier when he faced Stipe Miocic in their heavyweight championship trilogy bout at UFC 252 in August 2020.
After losing a unanimous decision, it wasn’t surprising that “DC” decided to retire, given his prospects outside the octagon.
Following a thrilling knockout victory over Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 299, Poirier was called to face the sport’s current pound-for-pound best fighter for the title.
Poirier previously came up short against Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira in his first two attempts to capture lightweight gold. Considering how competitive the division is, another title shot seems unlikely unless a short-notice situation arises.
Cormier understands Poirier’s position in life and in the sport, but as a former two-division champ and current commentator, he hopes Poirier isn’t overly focused on what life after fighting might look like just days away from a tough fight.
“When you start looking to the other side, when you start looking to a time when you don’t have to get up every morning and run seven miles, or when you don’t have to spar.
You don’t have to grapple, you don’t have to wrestle, you don’t have to do all of these things, it really does open up a world that the active fighter should never really think about,” Cormier explained.
“And again, he may just be different than me, but I know what it did to me at the end of my career, because I started looking to the time where I don’t have to worry about cutting the weight, doing all of this other stuff. That’s miserable.
“Life after that there’s vacations, beaches, eating what you want, doing whatever you want. I don’t love that there’s so many references to ‘my last chance,’ or ‘my last dance, I’m not committing to retirement.’
It’s like, if you have any desire to fight, you’ve got to be so in the fight that there is no thought of what comes next.”
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