Dustin Poirier gets brutally honest about his UFC 318 performance against Max Holloway: "Maybe that's a sign"

Dustin Poirier recently opened up about his performance against Max Holloway at UFC 318. Poirier's admission that he didn’t give his best suggests he made the right decision to retire from mixed martial arts.

Poirier wanted to end his MMA career with a win in the main event of UFC 318, which took place in front of his home audience at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. However, Holloway spoiled the evening for him as he won their trilogy matchup via unanimous decision.

During a recent interview with Mike Bohn of MMA Junkie, Poirier admitted that Holloway was the better fighter between them, as he failed to inflict any significant damage:

''Going through the fight and immediately my thoughts about what just happened, it was like I thought I did enough. I thought I did enough. And then I got back and I watched it, like what you're feeling and going through in there, and then what you see as a fool from an outside view is two different things. I can see him winning rounds, throwing more volume, landing body shots, pulling away in rounds. So, what I watched was different than what I felt.''

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Poirier continued:

''I think in there, I felt like in between rounds talking to my boxing coach, I could have taken more chances, but I was trying to protect myself at the same time, and I never really fought like that before. I would always put myself in harm's way to land the big shots, and this one I didn't, and maybe that's a sign that the decision I made was the right one. Self-preservation, get home to my family safe, that type of thing."

Check out Dustin Poirier's comments below:

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Dustin Poirier explains how much fighting means to him

Dustin Poirier ended his UFC career on Saturday at UFC 318 after he failed to capture the BMF belt from Max Holloway.

During the post-fight conference, Poirier expressed his love for fighting, saying it's a way to escape problems outside of the cage:

''I'm grateful that I was able to do all these things through chasing a dream. I was doing something I actually love to do. It was never work...Fighting was always the gym. Fighting was always my safe place. No matter what's going on in my life, I can go to the gym and bleed and sweat with these guys and the whole world. Nothing else matters, you know? Fighting has been so much to me.''

Check out Dustin Poirier's comments below (52:37):

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Edited by Swagat Kumar Jena