Dustin Poirier gets 100% real on what scares him most about retiring from the UFC: "Fighting was always my safe place"

Dustin Poirier recently opened up about his retirement from mixed martial arts. Poirier stated that fighting was his way of escaping troubles outside of the octagon.

Following an illustrious UFC career spanning over 14 years, Poirier finally laid down his gloves following the main event of UFC 318, where he fought Max Holloway for the BMF belt. Unfortunately for Poirier, Holloway proved to be the better fighter, inflicting significant damage and securing a unanimous decision win.

In the post-fight conference, Poirier expressed his thoughts on calling an end to his MMA career in front of his home crowd at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana.

''I'm grateful that I was able to do all these things through chasing a dream. I was doing something I actually love to do. It was never work. You know, even all these years later, getting ready for this one, knowing it was my retirement, it wasn't work. It was doing it out of love and passion. And that's what I'm kind of scared of moving forward, you know, not to have that to fall back on.''

Poirier continued:

''Fighting was always the gym. Fighting was always my safe place. No matter what's going on in my life, I can go to the gym and bleed and sweat with these guys and the whole world. Nothing else matters, you know? Fighting has been so much to me.''

Check out Dustin Poirier's comments below (52:37):

The most noteworthy moment of Poirier's UFC career came at UFC 236 in 2019, when he defeated Holloway via unanimous decision to become the interim lightweight champion. However, the 36-year-old was unable to capture the undisputed gold. He failed thrice in his 155-pound title bids, the most recent being a fifth-round submission loss to Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 last year.

Poirier has victories over some notable UFC stars like Conor McGregor, Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler, Dan Hooker, and many more.