UFC Legend Dustin Poirier: I Lost My Mind. I’ll Never Let It Happen Again.

**Steven Bartlett** (0:00)
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**Dustin Poirier** (1:00)
I've had bouts with depression throughout my career. But man, when it hits me, it's bad.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:04)
Which kind of brings us to the airport incident. Yeah.

**Dustin Poirier** (1:06)
I really messed up.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:08)
Man, f*** you and f*** her and f*** her. What happened?

**Dustin Poirier** (1:11)
So it's Father's Day. And I felt good in the morning. I spent the morning with my kids. But then as I was traveling to work, I felt that feeling again. There's like a cloud in my head that I just can't get out from under. So I started drinking. I'll fight you right now. No, I don't want to fight, bro. And my emotions got the best of me.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:26)
Bro, relax, relax, relax, bro, relax.

**Dustin Poirier** (1:28)
Got arrested.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:29)
This guy is a UFC f***er.

**Dustin Poirier** (1:31)
Did I just ruin everything I was working for? You know, I don't know yet. And it could have been so much worse.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:36)
But what was going on in your mind?

**Dustin Poirier** (1:37)
Well, I was angry at the world, and I just couldn't stop thinking about my father.
He's actually homeless right now. And I tried to help him out, and he's back out on the street. Not that anything's an excuse, but it wasn't myself. And I never really spoke about it until right now, but I'm back in therapy. And when you sit down with somebody and you start opening things up, you realize this could be linked to my childhood.

**Steven Bartlett** (1:59)
And when I think about your earliest contacts, you've got a father that's an alcoholic, violence in the home, and your mom said that you were an alcoholic kid.

**Dustin Poirier** (2:06)
I started drinking at 12, 13

**Steven Bartlett** (2:08)
Expelled from school as well.

**Dustin Poirier** (2:09)
And you got arrested, and I didn't have any goals.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:12)
So it was a bit of a roller coaster. But what happened? You rose.
One of the best life-wits in the world.

**Dustin Poirier** (2:20)
That was on top of the world.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:21)
But the roller coasters go down too, and this was the moment.

**Dustin Poirier** (2:25)
Yeah, man.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:26)
July 30th, you retired. How does it feel looking at that photo?

**Dustin Poirier** (2:30)
Yeah, I'm trying not to tear up, dude. It was my life, man. Those gloves, me putting them on the mat is a piece of myself. I left. But a wise man said, if a man's lucky, he gets to die twice. That part of me, that every day, wake up, push yourself to be the best fighter you can be, is dead. I'm retired, Dustin. I'm a businessman, Dustin. Now, you know, it's just, I'm trying to figure it all out. Because for 20 years, I was dreaming about being the best.
I just want to dream again, you know.

**Steven Bartlett** (2:53)
Has there ever been anything that compared?

**Dustin Poirier** (2:55)
No, nothing fills that void of what fighting was. And fighting was a part of therapy for me. And some days I wake up and I'm like, these top guys that are winning now on these upcoming cards, I can beat them still.

**Steven Bartlett** (3:06)
So is there any possibility that you ever return to the UFC?
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