Finishing Anatomy: UFC 291’s Dustin Poirier

By
Val Dewar
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Dustin Poirier, UFC 291
Dustin Poirier, UFC 291 ceremonial weigh-in Credit: Eddie Law/Cageside Press

Dustin Poirier has the most knockouts in the UFC lightweight division’s history, despite only competing there for just over half of his UFC run and fighting the best athletes in the sport for much of that time.

Further, he is tied with Anderson Silva for the fifth-most finishes in UFC history despite competing at lighter weight classes. Ahead of his highly anticipated war with Justin Gaethje at UFC 291 let’s take a look back at how Dustin finishes fights, including his first match against Gaethje, which he won by knockout, to examine what he might be able to apply in this fight, how he is such a prolific finisher when he smells blood, and to simply reminisce on one of the most entertaining careers in MMA history.

Poirier vs McGregor 2

Against Conor McGregor in their rematch at UFC 257, Dustin Poirier’s leg kicks remain the biggest impression most fans are left with from the fight. However, it was his boxing that got the job done ultimately, albeit after he had weakened Conor’s base with those kicks.

Right before the start of the finishing sequence McGregor is pressuring Dustin and looking to land his straight left, ever his money shot, off the jab. Dustin’s infamous Philly Shell and shoulder roll does well as he slips the first two 1-2s that McGregor throws in this clip, but Conor leans far forward of his stance to land the third left hand he throws. Dustin eats it but he notes how out of position Conor is and so is able to counter the next time. He hits McGregor with one more low kick when he jabs again, after which Conor’s leg buckles somewhat.

Dustin puts his left foot, the kicking foot, down square with his right and turns his body, putting him in orthodox stance, as opposed to his usual southpaw. Then, when the notorious left hand comes down the pipe, Dustin is in position to pop McGregor with a short right hook on the exit as he circles out. McGregor has no way to stop him due to being caught by the punch, being so overextended, and having his leg buckled by yet another low kick. Poirier completely reverses the position and becomes the one pressing the Irishman back against the fence. This is right where he wants to be.

From this position Dustin’s opponents have fewer options to escape his onslaught when he starts rolling downhill. In MMA the cage is much bigger than a boxing or kickboxing ring, giving fighters more defensive options, they can retreat to avoid strikes much more than fighters in other striking sports can. Effective pressure removes this option, leaving four potentially effective choices: move left, move right, shell up, or go on the offensive. Conor does not choose any of these options, likely thinking an endless barrage of blows is not coming quite so soon. He thinks he has more time to decide what to do. Dustin does not give him that time. The damage to McGregor’s calf also severely limits his mobility to circle out or even to shoot, if he felt so inclined.

As soon as Poirier walks back into range he begins the onslaught. The fluid boxing of Dustin Poirier, with that masterful sense of rhythm, hurts Conor with Dustin’s biggest punch of the fight thus far only four punches into his combination. Jab, straight left, right hook, and then the power left hook that follows rocks McGregor, sending him the rest of the way backwards until his butt hits the fence.

Conor becomes a deer caught in the headlights here. He has no idea what to do, having never been in a position like this. Even against Nate Diaz he did not face a hitter this powerful and he had options, he was in the middle of the octagon, not against the fence. There he chose wrong, shooting a takedown which played right into Diaz’s jiu-jitsu. Here he does not even have time to choose something like that. Dustin does not need to play with traps or setups or reads here. He just needs to continue rolling downhill, picking up momentum all the while.

When he pauses it is only for a moment, as he lands another powerful left hook as the first punch in a combination which staggers Conor and sends him retreating slowly along the fence to his right, finally making an attempt to escape. It is too little, too late. From then on it is a mixture of straights and hooks, but in particular viewers must note how his rhythm does not allow Conor to ever even think about getting a read on what is coming next. The time and space between punches changes ever so slightly: Thud, thud….thud….thud, thud, thud. An unpredictable punching rhythm is one of Dustin Poirier’s best attributes, it is part of what makes him one of the best boxers in mixed martial arts, and it is what allows him to be the first man to knock out The Notorious One.

Poirier vs Gaethje 1

A sequence that defined the first matchup between Dustin Poirier and Justin Gaethje, two of the most violent men in MMA history, was Gaethje landing his potent leg kick while Dustin looked to time those kicks and counter, especially with his powerful straight left. Due to the open stance matchup – Poirier fights as a southpaw whilst Gaethje is orthodox – the kicks thrown were mostly inside low kicks from Justin’s rear leg; he has never really learned to be as effective with lead leg kicks as rear ones. The path this kick had to travel to Dustin’s lead leg, his right, is longer than if Poirier was orthodox and his lead leg was his left. Thus the time it takes Gaethje to withdraw his leg and get back into his stance, where he would be squared up and ready to absorb punches, is a few beats longer. This gave ‘The Diamond’ more time to hurt Gaethje off the low kick, which ultimately won him the fight.

Gaethje is out of position as Poirier throws a leg kick

The lead up to that famous finishing sequence was a legendary war of attrition between the two lightweights. Dustin landed far more punches and attacked the body of Justin throughout the fight, a target which Gaethje both ignores and had proven susceptible to, such as one fight previously when Eddie Alvarez handed ‘The Highlight’ his first career loss.

With a fighter like Gaethje – one who has a nearly unbreakable chin – it will never be just that one shot that puts them out. It took three rounds of attrition, at an absurd average of fifty-two significant strikes per round, for Dustin Poirier to wear Gaethje down enough for a singular shot to be so telling.

Justin Gaethje’s defense up to and including this fight was severely unrefined. It has come a long way since then, but in those days he would either shell up behind his high guard when on the defensive or throw strikes wildly while not caring what position he left himself in. At the start of round four when he threw yet another leg kick, his fifty-seventh of the fight, Gaethje left his chin exposed with both hands down. Dustin timed it to perfection – he had fifteen minutes and fifty-six leg kicks to get the timing down by that point – and popped Justin with a clean straight left. Gaethje’s legs went and he Bambi-staggered across the octagon. From there on out it was just a matter of Dustin using his aforementioned rhythmic onslaught of combination punching until he found the punch, another straight, which put Gaethje down on the mat at last and ended the fight.

Poirier vs Chandler

In Dustin’s most recent bout he fought the insanely tough and explosive, but technically and cardiovascularly limited, wrestler Michael Chandler. The finish came in the third round. The first round was closely contested; each man was hit with big shots, but Chandler seemed to come away worse for wear after a late rebound by Poirier and Mike’s work in that round is tainted in hindsight by a headbutt. Chandler dominated with his wrestling in the second, aided by several fouls, but his mouth was wide open, breathing heavy, at the start of the third. He did his best to avoid engagements for the first part of the round and shot for a single leg takedown one minute in.

Dustin defended the takedown decently but the sheer physical strength of ‘Iron Mike’ was such that he was able to lift Poirier over his head anyways. He did not get a true slam but dropped Dustin to the mat and Poirier immediately got to his knees to get up. Chandler went to take his back and got one hook in. When he went for the second hook Dustin predicted it perfectly and inserted his hand to block the second hook. Dustin leaned backwards and turned to his left, spinning right into the guard of Chandler so that Poirier ended up on top.

Poirier uses his right hand to block Chandler from inserting a second hook

He used ground and pound to force Chandler to turn to his back, despite having the knee shield in half guard. Chandler saw an opportunity to get up but it was a trap as Dustin completely reversed the position from moments earlier and got on the back of his opponent. Chandler was on his knees with his legs close together, so instead of going for the hooks Dustin went straight to the body triangle.

Dustin wanted to attack the choke but Chandler grabbed a two-on-one on Poirier’s right wrist. Dustin threaded his left arm under the armpit pf Chandler and stripped the grip, freeing Poirier’s right arm to attack the choke. He put the right forearm across the chin of Chandler before releasing his grip on Chandler’s left hand. As a result, Mike could not defend the choke with that hand until it was too late and Dustin had brought his own left hand up to lock it in. Dustin threatened the face crank, compressing Chandler’s jaw, which opened up his neck. That gave him space to get his arm under the chin and lock in the choke.

The pressure on Mike’s chin would have hurt something fierce until it slipped under. Chandler tried to attack the left hand in the meantime but that only allowed the right forearm to keep sliding until it sank beneath the chin and tightened around his neck. Michael Chandler was forced to tap to a submission for the first time in his professional mixed martial arts career, another brilliant notch on Dustin Poirier’s resume.

Clearly Dustin Poirier is one of the best finishers in mixed martial arts, regardless of weight class. Finishing fighters who are almost unstoppable against lesser opponents – Eddie Alvarez, Justin Gaethje, Michael Chandler, Bobby Green – illustrates that clearly. Going to decisions against some of the toughest fighters on Earth – like Max Holloway and Dan Hooker – takes nothing away from that.

It remains to be seen if ‘The Diamond’ can pull off another finish against Gaethje in the rematch. Justin has significantly tightened up his defensive woes since his back-to-back losses to Alvarez and Poirier in 2017-18. Still, no one would call him the most responsible fighter defensively. There will be opportunities for Poirier to land clean and hurt Gaethje, but Justin has a consistent attritional technique that did more damage to Poirier than maybe any other fight in his career, severely messing up his legs and hips for a time after their first fight. The dynamic will be more complicated than last time, as ‘The Highlight’ is a more complicated fighter than he once was, but still Gaethje’s low kicks and Dustin’s straight counters will be one key battle to watch for, just as in the first fight back in 2018.

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