Dustin Poirier cannot expect automatic inauguration against Charles Oliveira at UFC 269

Many fans see Poirier as lightweight champion in waiting, but current title holder Oliveira is as dangerous as they come

Six times, Dustin Poirier slapped the heavy gold belt around his waist. Just to check it was real.

Stood in the middle of the Octagon, the heat of the arena lights sweltering around his head, his face was a canvas shimmering with sweat yet – somehow – simultaneously dulled by bruises. Tears streamed into the cuts under his eyes.

The American’s chest was raw, a patch of stinging skin highlighting the words inked upon it: “Parker Noelle”, the name of Poirier’s young daughter.

“I feel like I’m in a dream right now,” a then 30-year-old Poirier told Joe Rogan and the enamoured crowd in Atlanta, Georgia.

“This is my belt. I earned this in blood, I paid in full. This is mine,” Poirier continued, as if still raging against some spectral force. Somehow, it seemed, the energy expended moments earlier in his 25-minute war with Max Holloway was not all that the American had to give.

“Everybody out there, if there’s people telling you that you can’t do it... that you’re not good enough... I’ve been told that my whole life, and I’m the world champ.”

Poirier held the interim UFC lightweight title in 2019 (Getty)

Exasperated, Poirier forced the words out, his voice now trembling. Behind him, the Louisianan’s wife Jolie covered her face to hide her tears. Her husband’s began to flow with greater frequency, his lips quivering.

Poirier was finally world champion. If it felt like a dream, that’s because it was – a dream realised. But there was an asterisk.

“This is a piece of the world title. I want to unify this belt with the best,” Poirier said, acknowledging his status as interim champion, and that he had not yet kicked Khabib Nurmagomedov from the lightweight summit.

Nor would he, for five months later Poirier’s tears were not weighted with happiness and relief, but rather with anguish. Two minutes into the second round of his unification bout with the “Eagle”, the southpaw was strangled into submission, eyes bulging as he tapped out to a rear naked choke.

Not for the first time in his career, Poirier was tasked with earning redemption – in his eyes only, for fans recognised there was no shame in the ‘Diamond’s defeat by Khabib, the consensus greatest lightweight of all time.

Still, Poirier saw it as his duty to claw his way back towards the lightweight summit. It has taken two years, but he has done just that. Importantly, the “Eagle” has flown – from the summit and from the sport.

Nurmagomedov submits Poirier to unify the lightweight titles (Getty)

Poirier’s self-paved path to redemption began when he outgunned Dan Hooker in a hellacious bout in spring 2020, before he ushered in 2021 by exacting revenge on Conor McGregor for a 2014 loss to the Irishman. Finished by McGregor in the first round of that featherweight clash, Poirier handed “Notorious” the first knockout defeat of his career this January, stopping his old rival in the second round of a lightweight rematch.

The build-up to the pair’s second bout was much more cordial than what preceded their first, but the press conferences for their subsequent trilogy fight this July saw McGregor spew the kind of verbal venom that disorientated Poirier ahead of their 2014 clash. Poirier, now 32, demonstrated his maturation as a man and as a mixed martial artist to emerge from this summer’s build-up mentally unfazed. On fight night, he stayed similarly composed to withstand McGregor’s early pressure and assert his superiority as the first round progressed – before the Irishman’s ankle snapped, ensuring Poirier a win by doctor stoppage.

Poirier could have directly pursued the lightweight belt rather than fighting McGregor this July, but the “Diamond” doubled down instead, backing himself to beat McGregor again and maintain his status as No 1 contender while also guaranteeing another massive payday. His judgement was vindicated by his second straight win over the biggest star in MMA, and now the 155lb division’s mountain-top is back in sight.

The “Eagle” no longer guards it, but the lightweight crown’s new custodian is still uniquely dangerous.

Charles Oliveira, in contrast to his predecessor as lightweight champion, is more serpent than bird of prey.

Oliveira celebrates after becoming lightweight champion in May (Getty)

Find yourself on the mat with the Brazilian, and he will slither his way into submissions, strangle you, use his slender frame to manipulate your body as he sees fit. Of the 32-year-old’s 31 victories, a staggering 19 have come via submission – three of them, fittingly, anaconda chokes. He has more finishes than any fighter in UFC history, including a record for the most submission victories.

A former featherweight, like Poirier, Oliveira has thrived since moving up to 155lb. “Do Bronx” has nine straight wins dating back to 2018, and only one of those fights has gone to the judges’ scorecards. Along the way, he has honed his striking skills, now displaying impressively tight and tidy technique when exchanging with opponents on the feet.

Oliveira’s kicks are thrown with fearlessness, for he knows that being taken down will work in his favour much more than his opponents’, such is the extent of his jiu-jitsu prowess.

Almost everything, it seems, is a trap. You’d be forgiven for including his beaming grin in that. There is just something inherently threatening about the Brazilian, something that screams “danger”.

Furthermore, he has begun to neutralise notions that he lacks composure and heart when under pressure or in deep waters. Perhaps his finest dismissal of such criticism came in May, when he survived an onslaught from Michael Chandler late in the first round before stopping the American just 19 seconds into the second frame.

That victory saw Oliveira claim the undisputed title vacated by Khabib.

Yet in the eyes of many fans, Oliveira is a disputed champion. For some, Poirier is champion in waiting.

Oliveira has won his last nine fights, eight of those victories coming via finishes (Getty)

He is certainly well positioned to beat Oliveira. Poirier is just as well rounded as the Brazilian. He is more than competent on the mat, has seemingly limitless cardio capacity, and he will bring superior strength and striking skills into the main event of UFC 269. It is very possible that the “Diamond”’s greater power in punching exchanges will prove the decisive factor in this title fight.

But this is no automatic inauguration for Poirier. While some fans think it is, the fighter himself certainly does not. The one accolade to elude the American – becoming undisputed world champion – is no birthright.

Importantly, when he spoke tearfully after overcoming then-featherweight champion Holloway to claim the interim lightweight belt, there was no mention of destiny.

That title was “earned in blood, paid in full”. Nothing was promised then, nor is it now.

When Poirier stands across from Oliveira on Saturday, the Octagon in Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena will transform into a viper’s pit.

“I [used to say] 25 minutes to make life fair,” he said this week. “This is 25 minutes for eternity, 25 until eternity.”

If Poirier is to finally become undisputed champion of the world this weekend – if he is to achieve eternity – he will have to do more than just turn up.

He will likely have to pay for it in blood.