“That excites me because that kind of stuff is for the dogs, man. That’s like the old PRIDE days or Grand Prix… definition of a BMF.” Dustin Poirier couldn’t hide his excitement when Andreas Hale pitched the idea on MMA Today, throwing him, Justin Gaethje, Dan Hooker, and Max Holloway into a tournament for the BMF belt last year. ‘The Diamond’ didn’t even think twice before agreeing to the wild setup. A one-night tournament to settle it all? To Poirier, that’s exactly how you find out who’s the real baddest of them all!

Surprisingly, a lot of people thought it wasn’t even a bad idea. Even the head honcho, Dana White, was all over it. He responded by saying, “Sounds fun! Never thought about it, but yeah, I love it,” at the Contender Series 75 post-fight presser. Meanwhile, Dan Hooker was already licking his chops, thinking it was the perfect time for him to jump in and wrote on X, “Don’t threaten me with a good time”. Young Diego Lopes and veteran Eddie Alvarez? They also wanted a piece of the action too. It didn’t take long for the whole thing to start catching some serious attention. However, Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway didn’t share any reaction to this epic matchup.

Poirier went to pitch the idea to Dana White, but things got a little messy. The head honcho thought the former interim lightweight champ was talking about a traditional tournament spread out over months. But the ‘155 lbs slugger’ was pushing for a 10-minute first round, like the old PRIDE FC days. In the end, the tournament never happened. ‘The Diamond’ has finally revealed the reason. It’s because White told him it wasn’t going to happen because nobody would sanction it.

Dustin Poirier, on the Ariel Helwani show, stated, “Telling him, hey let’s do a BMF tournament and I pitched me, Gaethje, Max, and Hooker. So, I don’t know, maybe that’s why maybe they put… no, no clue really. Me and Dana sat down in his office and talked about it. He thought I was talking about a few-month tournament where guys fight each other, and then a few months later, they fight again. I was talking about a one-night tournament. He told me nobody would sanction that.”

He added, “I would be totally down like 10 minutes first round if they wouldn’t allow 1 night, 5 rounds each fight, or even 1 night tournament, 3 rounds, each fight, it would be too many MMA rounds in one night for a guy. I would do 1 long first round, whatever he wanted. Dude, I thought it would be a cool idea!”

It was definitely an out-of-the-box idea, and yeah, a pretty chaotic one too! But imagining all four of them battling it out ion the same day, tournament-style, with a crazy prize and the BMF belt on the line? That would’ve been a spectacle for sure. Still, as cool as it sounded, it kind of felt more like a fever dream than something that could actually happen.

Unfortunately, Dustin Poirier’s dream tournament never came to life in the UFC. But fighting one of the best strikers in the promotion, in front of his home crowd, ended up being something fans could get behind. And Poirier? He’s nothing but thankful for that.

Dustin Poirier is Grateful to the UFC and the Governor for the retirement fight in Louisiana

A veteran like Dustin Poirier really deserved a send-off like that. He’s been around forever, giving us absolute wars inside the Octagon. The sport will miss him just like he’s going to miss it. UFC 318 in his hometown of Louisiana, going up against Max Holloway in the longest trilogy ever? That’s storybook stuff right there! ‘The Diamond’ couldn’t have asked for a better ending. You could tell how grateful he was to the UFC brass, the fans, and even the governor for making it all happen.

Poirier, while continuing his conversation with Ariel Helwani, said, “When I brought it to the UFC’s attention that I wanted to do it in Louisiana if possible and they entertained that, I was kinda blown away. I didn’t think that they would entertain that idea. The UFC hasn’t been there [in] over 10 years. So, man, it was just an honor, I’m just thankful that the company listened. Thank you, Dana, thank you, Hunter, everybody involved, the state of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, the governor.”

With Dustin Poirier closing his chapter in front of his home crowd, how did you picture his retirement fight going down? Maybe a tournament? Something even more interesting? Drop your thoughts below!