Does a UFC fighter have to win a title to be counted as a legend? Yoel Romero, Alexander Gustafsson, and Dan Henderson would disagree. In fact, many divisions in the UFC have long-standing champions and some future legends may never win the belt. John Anik thinks Dustin ‘The Diamond’ Poirier has done enough to secure his place among the big shots.
John Anik was talking MMAFightingonSBM following UFC 281 where he was asked about the Dustin Poirier fight. The long-time UFC commentator didn’t shy away from showing his appreciation, “I don’t even know how to be articulate when talking about Dustin Poirier.”
“Dustin Poirier is incredible, and I don’t think he needs an undisputed UFC lightweight championship to prove any sort of greatness,” Anik continued.
“This was a difficult matchup [For Poirier] in a lot of respects. Michael Chandler’s explosivity is a problem for a lot of people, and maybe if Chandler makes a little bit of a different decision at times in this fight, the narrative flips.”
Poirier’s resume truly speaks for itself. He has fought absolute killers in both featherweight and lightweight. He has defeated the ‘best boxer’ in the UFC, Max Holloway twice. He also avenged his loss to Conor ‘Notorious’ McGregor twice in a convincing manner.
Dustin’s losses in his title fight came against lightweight GOAT Khabib Nurmagomedov and prime Charles Oliveira. Two of UFC’s strongest punchers, Justin Gaethje and Michael Chandler have now suffered defeat against ‘The Diamond.’ What more does he really have to prove?
The 33-year-old fighter is still fighting and will probably continue for at least a few more years. He recently suffered an infection on his leg but seems to be recovering. With the reigning champion Islam Makhachev, most fighters don’t favor Poirier in a potential title bout as the Dagestani style of wrestling might be too much for the former interim champ.
But even if Dustin doesn’t compete in a single fight going forward, we believe his actions inside the octagon and for charity will land him a place amongst the UFC legends.
