In an interview with Ariel Helwani, former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier revealed that his father’s alcohol problems have made him so stubborn that he wouldn’t stop drinking even if it ultimately costs him his life. Poirier opened up about his troubling battle with alcohol after police arrested him at Atlanta Airport in late June for public drunkenness and misdemeanor. But alongside his own struggles, ‘The Diamond’ also unveiled that this grave problem runs deep in his family. His father, Darrell, is currently going through his own struggles with alcoholism that Poirier says have fractured his father’s relationships with his loved ones.
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“My sister went out and found him and spoke to him and told him that we were willing to help him out, but he doesn’t, you know, he doesn’t want it,” Poirier said. “He wants to, you know, he wants to drink until he dies. That’s just, you know, how alcoholics are stubborn, and that’s his choice, man.”
“But I’m not going to let it affect my family, and I can’t let it affect my family. I have to protect me and my household and not mimic and mirror the bad decisions he made in his life. And that’s what I meant when I said, ‘It stops with me.’ You know, my son Kingston will never remember me being intoxicated, never remember me saying things I didn’t mean or doing things I didn’t mean to do because of alcohol. You know, so it just, it stops here.”
For most of his career, Dustin Poirier kept his relationship with his father under wraps. However, it was commonly known that the Louisiana native’s parents separated when he was just 5 years old. Following the divorce, Poirier’s mother primarily took care of him and his siblings, with his father largely absent from their lives. But this isn’t actually the first time he has spoken about his relationship with his father.
Right after his Father’s Day arrest, Poirier appeared on the Diary of a CEO podcast, where he opened up about his difficult relationship with his father. According to ‘The Diamond,’ his father is currently “homeless” because of alcohol abuse, and his condition hasn’t gotten any better. Poirier also revealed during the podcast that one of the main reasons behind his excessive drinking at Atlanta Airport was that he had been thinking about his father.
Because the 37-year-old decided to speak openly about his issues, he received immense support from fighters like Max Holloway and Jon Jones. However, Poirier’s bitter rival Conor McGregor had a slightly different view on him publicly discussing his father’s alcohol-related problems.
Reflecting on Poirier’s statements on SmashCast, the Irishman hoped that he “comes out right.” Still, McGregor felt that ‘The Diamond’ was somehow blaming his father for his recent arrest and advised him to take “accountability” for his own actions.
As for Poirier, he asked for help and admitted that he would never make the same mistake again, despite struggles with alcohol running deep in his family.
