JRE MMA Show #102 with Dustin Poirier

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience. Good to have you here, man.

Dustin Poirier (0:17)

Good to finally be here.

Joe Rogan (0:18)

What does it feel like right now? You're on the top of the world, son.

Dustin Poirier (0:22)

Feels good, everybody's asking me that, but I've been fighting for a while, so it's just, it's another win. It's a big one, you know, the guy's such a celebrity, but just another win.

Joe Rogan (0:32)

Well, if you look at your last, like there was a, I think it was an Instagram post where someone put up your last victories, all the guys that you've beaten.

Like, dude, I mean, you talk about earning your way to the top. I mean, you went through a fucking who's who, a murderer's row of the 155 pound division. I mean, you earned it. I mean, you really did earn it.

Dustin Poirier (0:55)

Paid in full.

Joe Rogan (0:55)

Yeah, 100%, man.

Dustin Poirier (0:57)

Yeah, I'm trying to keep adding them, Joe.

Joe Rogan (1:01)

I know. I know you are.

Dustin Poirier (1:03)

But yeah, I think it's five or six world champions that I beat in the UFC.

Joe Rogan (1:06)

Yeah.

Dustin Poirier (1:07)

Yeah, Pettis, Gaethje, Eddie.

Joe Rogan (1:10)

Max.

Dustin Poirier (1:10)

Max. Conor.

Joe Rogan (1:12)

Yeah. Huge.

Dustin Poirier (1:13)

I don't know if there's another one in there, but that's enough.

Joe Rogan (1:15)

Those are giant victories, man. I mean, those giant, giant victories. And for a guy like you, who's been at it for a long time, I'm like, you just keep getting better. You just keep improving. You just keep adding on. And more important, I think, than, or not more important, or as important as any of those things is your composure.

Your composure now is at the top of the heap.

Dustin Poirier (1:38)

Yeah, I'm really comfortable in there. And I trust myself. Even when shit's gonna get bad in there, I just trust myself to find a way.

And I think that comes with fighting at the highest level for as long as I have.

Joe Rogan (1:50)

Yeah.

Dustin Poirier (1:50)

I've been going on like 11 years in the UFC.

Joe Rogan (1:53)

It also like being at the brink a couple of times, like the Jim Miller fight, when your leg was so fucked up. You talk about like lessons learned and how they pay off later.

So interesting because your leg was so fucked up in that fight. And then to have you debilitate Conor in the exact same way and then stop him right after that.

Dustin Poirier (2:14)

Yeah, dude, that was so painful. That was the first time I've been calf kicked in an actual fight. And I thought my leg was broken. We went to the hospital. They gave me morphine and the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

It was jacked up. I was, and then the altitude, you know, after flying back home, I couldn't walk. I couldn't walk for a few days.

Joe Rogan (2:32)

I remember that fight because I remember there was a moment where it seemed like you couldn't move, but then you got the takedown.

Dustin Poirier (2:37)

Yeah, he threw another kick. I think I caught his foot and tripped him up. Yeah, I had to get him down.

And that's what I'm talking about, finding a way. Like I trust myself to grab that damn foot.

Joe Rogan (2:46)

Yeah, but isn't it crazy how those pivotal moments in a fight, like it could go this way or it could go that way and it goes your way. And then, you know, you see guys' careers teeter in the balance of those pivotal moments.

Dustin Poirier (2:58)

Yeah, if it goes that way a couple of times in a row, a lot of guys can't come back from that.

Joe Rogan (3:02)

Well, we were talking recently about Anderson Silva. You think about Anderson Silva's spectacular career and then Weidman knocks him out and then he doesn't win another fight for years. He wins one fight with a decision over Derek Bronson and that's it, every fight since then he's lost, which is crazy.

Dustin Poirier (3:19)

Yeah, I don't wanna say that that's because of just his age and decline, but it could be that or it could be some guys just don't know how to lose.

Some guys just don't know how to lose. He's been on top so successful for so long and you start getting, you realize you're human. I'm not saying that's his case, but I've seen it happen.

Joe Rogan (3:35)

Yeah, it definitely can happen.

That is an important thing, right? Learning how to lose, because there's some guys that for whatever reason, they have all this confidence, all this momentum and then they lose and they lose like, when they lose a fight, it's not just that they lost the fight, they lose like 30% of who they are. They lose their aura, they lose their confidence, they lose this feeling that no one's gonna beat them.