Dustin Poirier is nearing the end of his legendary UFC career. At UFC 318, he’s set to face Max Holloway for the third and final time in a bout designed as a fitting farewell to ‘The Diamond’. Poirier will perform his swan song in New Orleans, Louisiana — a symbolic return to the state where his MMA journey began. His path to the top was anything but smooth. 

Chaos marked Poirier’s early life. When he was just five, his parents separated. Thereon, Jere Chaisson raised him and his brothers in Lafayette as a single mother. School did the young Poirier no favors as he constantly found himself getting into fights. This defiance eventually led to a stint in juvenile detention when he was in the eighth grade. 

What happened in juvenile detention at age 10?

Poirier’s mother was desperate to have him finish his schooling but the Lafayette-born star would find ways to skip classes. When he was in the eighth grade, his mother caught him skipping classes and driving around in her spare van. Add to that, he got involved in several street fights. He was arrested for significantly damaging an older kid during an impromptu boxing bout. Instead of jail, Chaisson found a program that would send the young Poirier to juvenile detention if he continued to skip classes. 

Yet, Poirier remained adamant regarding his schooling. As a result, he had to go to a juvenile detention center for one month. Talking about it during an interview with Talk Sport, ‘The Diamond’ said, “I was in a lot of street fights when I was younger. I got into them when I was younger, then plenty through high school, and it was always something I was good at. It’s weird to say, but I found a sense of calm in the chaos. I enjoy that about fighting. I dropped out in the ninth grade.” He continued, “I went to juvenile detention around my freshman year, and things just got complicated.”

As if time spent in juvenile detention wasn’t enough, Poirier was placed in a military-style boot camp for three more months, in an attempt to fix his behavior and attitude towards getting his education. But things didn’t work out, and he finally dropped out of school at the age of 16.

Amidst the chaos of his troubled youth, one person would later become his anchor — and his wife, Jolie Poirier. Let’s see how she influenced the former interim lightweight champion’s life. 

The role Dustin Poirier’s wife played in his journey from juvenile detention to UFC fame

Talking to Outta Pocket with RGIII, Dustin Poirier said, “When I was in juvenile detention — and me and her might not have been dating at the time — she was writing me letters every week. Besides my mother, the only letters I was getting was [from] her, and when I got out of juvenile detention, she was there. She drove all the way out to watch me leave and stuff like that, and I was like, ‘I’m going to marry this girl.’”

He continued, “Honestly, not to sound corny, cheesy, bro, I wouldn’t have made it as far — because I was living with her since I was 18, since I was an amateur fighter… I wouldn’t have had an anchor to come back home to every night to cook a meal with, to watch a movie, to go to Blockbuster back in the day, to get takeout Chinese food, that was every weekend.”

He knew that he had a woman who loved and believed in him, especially during times when he’d lose faith in himself. He claimed, “She believed in me so much that it was hard to quit on myself whenever she thinks I can do whatever I want.” And that partly made him the disciplined fighter that is ‘The Diamond’ today. What are your thoughts on ‘The Diamond’s retirement fight against ‘Blessed’? Can he actually claim the win and wear the BMF belt around his waist?