Dustin Poirier’s excellent bout with Joseph Duffy at UFC 195 was a significant step forward for Poirier, as wound up doing some significant damage before taking a clean sweep on the judges scorecards.
He wound up suffering a badly broken nose in the bout, but other than that he felt great with the win, and is looking ahead to some top competition for his next bout.
“When I got off the stool for the second round, I couldn’t breathe at all through my nose. I just got back from the hospital. It’s broken in two spots,” Poirier explained at the post-fight press conference (transcribed by MMAFighting.com). “I just did what I had to do. Took him down and took advantage of that.
“I think there’s a lot of fights out there that make sense. My goal was to crack the top 10 last year and that didn’t happen with the fight falling out. Hopefully I’ll be up there now. I want top 10 opponents.”
The matchup itself was initially scheduled to headline the UFC Fight Night card in Dublin in October on UFC Fight Pass, and it remained on the UFC’s digital streaming service for this card. UFC President Dana White argued afterward that the move was not only for the those Fight Pass subscribers given it was supposed to headline on the network last fall, but for fans in Ireland as well with it airing at a more reasonable time for them than had it been on the main card. Regardless of the intent, it wound up having the desired effect for the UFC.
“It broke the record,” White said of the fight’s viewership at the post-fight press conference. “It’s the most-watched fight we’ve ever had on Fight Pass.”
Penick’s Analysis: The fight still belonged in a higher profile spot regardless of their reasoning for placing it on Fight Pass, because having it air on the non-televised prelims meant less exposure for Poirier in victory, record or no. Hopefully he gets his top ten fight next, because the performance warranted that kind of bump. He’s translated his game well up a weight class, and if he can do what he did to Duffy against a top ten guy, he’ll be able to make a run towards the UFC Lightweight Championship.
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