Matt D'Avella

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Dustin Poirier

with depression throughout my care, but, man, when it hits me, it's bad.

Matt D'Avella

Which kind of brings us to the airport incident.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, I really messed up, man.

Matt D'Avella

You and her and her. What happened?

Dustin Poirier

So it's Father's Day, and I felt good in the morning. I spent the morning with my kids, but then as I was traveling to work, I felt that feeling again. It's like a cloud in my head that I just can't get out from under. So I started drinking. I'll fight you right now. No, I don't want to fight, bro. And my emotions got the best of me.

Matt D'Avella

Relax, relax, relax, bro. Relax.

Dustin Poirier

Got arrested. This guy's a ufc. Did I just ruin everything that was working for, you know, I don't know yet. And it could have been so much worse.

Matt D'Avella

What was going on in your mind?

Dustin Poirier

I was angry at the world and I just couldn't stop thinking about my father. You know, he's actually homeless right now, and I try to help him out and he's back out on the street. Not that anything's an excuse, but it wasn't myself. And I never really spoke about it until right now. But I'm back in therapy, and when you sit down with somebody and start opening things up, you realize this could be linked to my childhood.

Matt D'Avella

And When I think about your earliest context, you got a father that's an alcoholic, violence in the home, and your mom said that you were an alcoholic kid.

Dustin Poirier

I started drinking at 12, 13, expelled from school as well, and got arrested, and I didn't have any goals, so

Matt D'Avella

it was a bit of a rollercoaster. But look what happened. You rose Dash Ken, one of the

Dustin Poirier

best lightweights in the world. I was on top of the world,

Matt D'Avella

but the roller coasters got down to. And this was the moment.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, man.

Matt D'Avella

July 30th, you retired. How does it feel looking at that photo?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, I'm trying not to tear up, dude. It was my life, man. Those gloves, me putting them on the mat is a piece of myself I left. But a wise man said, if a man's lucky, he gets to die twice. That part of me that every day, wake up, push yourself to be the best fighter you can be is dead. I'm retired Dustin. I'm businessman Dustin now. You know, it's just. I'm trying to figure it all out, because the 20 years I was dreaming about being the best, I just want to dream again, you know?

Matt D'Avella

Has there ever been anything that compared?

Dustin Poirier

No. Nothing. Feels that void of what fighting was. And fighting was a part of therapy for me. And some days I wake up and I'm like, these top guys that are winning now on these upcoming cards, I can beat them still.

Matt D'Avella

So is there any possibility that you ever return to the ufc? Guys, I've got a favor to ask. Before this episode begins, the algorithm, if you follow a show, will deliver you the best episodes from that show very prominently in your feed. So when we have our best episodes on this show, the most shared episodes, the most rated episodes, I would love you to know. And the simple way for you to know that is to hit that follow button. But also, it's the simple, easy, free thing that you can do to help us make this show better. And I would be hugely grateful if you could take a minute on the app you're listening to this on right now, and hit that follow button. Thank you so much. So, so much. Dustin Poirier.

Dustin Poirier

Yo.

Matt D'Avella

You know, there's a. There's a question that we kind of throw around in society. We say it quite, quite flippantly to people we meet, friends, family, strangers. But. But in this context, I want to ask it in the most sort of intentional way, and give me the long answer. How are you doing.

Dustin Poirier

As a whole? Great. Recently there's been some turbulence, you know, but I'm doing well. Doing well.

Matt D'Avella

There's been some turbulence.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah,

Matt D'Avella

give me some color on that. I.

Dustin Poirier

Last week, which is not new to me, let my emotions get the best of me. Kind of was in a. In a bad spot, mentally. Started drinking, got arrested, you know, got into some trouble at the airport in Atlanta, and, you know, not proud of it, but it is what it is.

Matt D'Avella

I want to give some background context, and I spent the last couple of days sort of looking through your childhood and where you come from and who you are to try and fill the. The picture of Dustin Poirier in my head. And I've got lots of photos of you here as a young man. Got another one even younger here that I'll share with you here. Yeah. And I think this was incredibly important context because I'd watched you fight the best there is and beat the best that there is in the ufc, but it wasn't until I understood your earliest context that I started to, like, understand the picture of where you've come from and also, in some part, like, how that makes you who you are today. So take me back. What is the early context that people need to understand to really understand you as a man?

Dustin Poirier

I'm just a man trying his best, trying to provide for my family, learning as I go. Not scared to work hard, not scared to chase dreams. Just a kid from Lafayette, Louisiana, who found something to put his all into and try to become great at it, you know, with fighting.

Matt D'Avella

Your father and your grandfather were fighters?

Dustin Poirier

My father boxed growing up when he was younger. My grandfather was in the Navy and worked in the oil field and stuff. They weren't successful fighters. I wouldn't say they were. Like, nobody knew who they were, but definitely, yeah, I come from fighters for sure.

Matt D'Avella

And from money. Do you come from money?

Dustin Poirier

No, definitely not.

Matt D'Avella

What was that like growing up? Was there.

Dustin Poirier

It was normal to me because I didn't know any different. You know, it wasn't like I missed a meal or anything like that, but definitely wasn't. Wasn't rich or anything, or had money to do a whole lot of things when I was younger. But a working class family, you know,

Matt D'Avella

and your parents divorced when you were younger?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. Yeah, I lived with them up until about maybe kindergarten or first. First grade. Then they got divorced.

Matt D'Avella

Do you have any sort of mental models or mental images of them being together when you were younger? Is there any memories of them being together?

Dustin Poirier

Honestly, dude, not to. To be. To turn it dark or anything, but the early memories I have of them together aren't the best. You know, it's fighting and Violence and stuff, physical fighting. Yeah, yeah.

Matt D'Avella

In that Instagram post you wrote recently after the incident in the airport, you mentioned your father and you mentioned, I think some of his struggles. He had his own struggles with alcohol. Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

His whole life. He has, yeah. Alcohol has ruined his life.

Matt D'Avella

And alcohol was present when you were a young man. Oh, yeah. And you were still there.

Dustin Poirier

He's been an alcoholic my entire life.

Matt D'Avella

Did you have a relationship with him after the divorce?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, of course. I don't know what that's called. Split custody or something. Where every other weekend I would go to his house, spend the weekend at his house.

Matt D'Avella

How did that season of your life, do you think, as you look back, shaped the man that you became? Like that early context, under the age of 10 years old, that violent parents, they divorce, they separate. Your dad is struggling with alcohol. Like, how do you look back on

Dustin Poirier

that as a grown man? I look back and think my father was an idiot for, you know, getting. Not being there with his kids. You know, as a father I think about that. Like I don't. Waking up with my kids in the house, running up to me, making them breakfast every day. Like I couldn't. I never want to live that type of life. I can't even imagine it. So as an adult and a father, looking back on it, I think he's made a lot of mistakes that, you know, I think he still lives with.

Matt D'Avella

And your mum.

Dustin Poirier

Uh huh.

Matt D'Avella

Got some nice photos over here as well. That's your wife. But she seems to have been a real constant throughout your life. That's her there for sure.

Dustin Poirier

For sure. I'll be on vacation with her in a week. Yeah. Look at my face post fight. Her and my grandmother raised me. She was, you know, everything. Mothers are everything. And she still is, you know, calling me, texting me every day, checking on me, asking how I am. And you got two brothers, so I have two brothers. I grew up with two brothers and a sister I met when I was 25, 26 years old. From my father,

Matt D'Avella

I guess I'm trying to figure out as well because I heard about what you were like in school. You struggled in school. It sounds like you got in a lot of fights when you were younger. I'm trying to figure out where that came from in you.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, I mean, living in South Louisiana, we fought all the time, but I just kept doing it. I just kept going with fighting, you

Matt D'Avella

know, as a young man. I read that you were expelled from school as well. And was that again for fighting and struggling to.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, yeah, fighting. The one that got me expelled was a fight.

Matt D'Avella

And that seems to be a little, quite a consistent pattern from 10 to 14, struggling in school, fighting. And then at 15, I hear that you end up in juvenile detention center. 14, 14, what was the road there? What happened?

Dustin Poirier

I had gotten to some trouble at one of the times I was living with my father. I got into a fight and physically hurt somebody in the fight and got arrested and I was on probation at the time and I wasn't going to school, got picked up for truancy and some other things like that for not going to school and failed the drug test. I was on probation at the time, failed the drug test, and then they sent me to juvenile detention.

Matt D'Avella

Were you drinking at that age?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

At 15. When did you start drinking?

Dustin Poirier

I was talking to my wife the other day and I was thinking about that. I don't know, 12, 13, probably.

Matt D'Avella

Hmm. It is, it is quite, it's quite curious to me that, you know, 14, 15, you're getting in trouble for fighting. You end up in a detention center, you're drinking from 12 years old. And it like begs the question to me as someone that's done lots of these interviews, like, what was going on in that, in that young man's mind?

Dustin Poirier

I don't have an answer. What was going on? Not having anywhere to put my focus. I wasn't trying to be the best at something. I was just living day to day, doing whatever, you know, I didn't have any goals. I was a young kid. You know, it's tough to say, to look back to that young and really say what I was thinking at that age. I was just being a kid, I guess.

Matt D'Avella

Were you a happy kid? Yeah. You were a happy kid? Yeah. And you were spending the week with your mother and then the week you said, was it the weekends with your father?

Dustin Poirier

The weekend or every other weekend? I forget exactly how it was. Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

And when you talk about his life being ruined by alcohol, what do you mean by that?

Dustin Poirier

I mean he has, he's ruined his marriages, he's ruined his relationships, he's ruined his friendships, he's ruined his relationships with his family, with his kids. Two sons, three. Well, my little brother kind of is off and on talking to him, but he has two kids that don't speak to him at all and, and won't, you know, he's been in jail plenty of times for, for alcohol related stuff. And yeah, if I could paint a picture what you think of, of a classic drunk or alcoholic, you know, very selfish and continues to go back to it continues. He's actually homeless. Homeless right now.

Matt D'Avella

He's homeless right now?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. Part of that. Me getting in trouble at the airport was I just felt. And it's not my weight to carry, you know, but I just felt. I tried to help him out, and he's back out on the street. It's like it almost doesn't want help, you know? And I was just kind of on Father's Day, I was traveling to work, and I just couldn't stop thinking about my father. And I started drinking in the airport, and that's kind of what led to the incident. It's just. But when I feel like that, you know, I've been going to therapy and stuff like that. Years ago, I started going to therapy, and when I started feeling better, I stopped practicing everything I learned through therapy, you know? And then I felt that feeling again. Just an. I guess you call it depression. Just didn't feel well. And when I feel like that, I know I shouldn't drink, and I drank anyway. So, you know, not that my father. Anything's an excuse. Obviously, I did what I did, but I knew I knew better in the moment when I'm feeling like that, to drink or do anything, you know, alcohol has never benefited me, especially in times like that where I'm mentally not the best.

Matt D'Avella

You used the word depression there to describe that feeling, to give it a word. So let's use that word. Can you paint a picture for me in terms of what that actually feels like? That day that you wake up, it's Father's Day, you don't feel good. Like, what is that?

Dustin Poirier

No, I felt good in the morning. You know, I spent the morning with my kids. My daughter wrote me a letter. She gave me presents, you know, did all the Father's Day stuff. I had a great morning. But then when I left my home to go to fly out, I started feeling it, you know, And. And days leading up to that, it would come off and on, coming off and on, and I would think about, you know, my father, and it would kind of bring me down, but it wasn't that bad. But for Father's Day, it just hit me, man. It hit me hard.

Matt D'Avella

Because he's currently homeless.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

Here in Louisiana.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. Yeah. I actually. Man, when I got out of jail in Atlanta and flew back home on that Tuesday, I got back late, maybe Tuesday, Wednesday morning, I drove to where he. He lives or where he sleeps and went to the sheriff's office, got in contact with the coroner, had to do the whole process to sign an opc Order of protective custody. I tried to get him to pick him up against his will and all this stuff, and they did, but I went at the wrong time, man. I went early in the morning when I woke up. And when they picked him up, he wasn't disoriented. He was normal, you know, and so they released him again.

Matt D'Avella

What is the range of feelings and emotions you have towards him at the moment?

Dustin Poirier

You know, he's always. It's tough. And I'm not angry at him. I'm. And once again, this isn't an excuse for my actions. You know, my father just came to a head on Father's Day, but. But just. Upset to see him doing this to himself and not getting out of his own way and continuing to let it get just worse and worse progressively over the years when he. When he knows better, you know, when he knows better. I mean, most people, when you make a mistake or do you try to fix it, you try to make tomorrow better than yesterday, you know, next year better than this year. Everybody just keeps doing the same thing. And that's because he's addicted to alcohol.

Matt D'Avella

What is his story?

Dustin Poirier

I wish I. I knew more so I could tell you, but been like a hard worker his whole life, you know, did whatever. Worked in the oil field for a long time, but checked to check his whole life. Simple guy, you know, was a really good athlete in. In school. Got a woman pregnant at a young age in high school, so he couldn't pretend, continue to focus and chase his dreams of playing football. You know, back then when you got a girl pregnant, you got married and got a job and, and things like that. So that's what he did.

Matt D'Avella

So that day you wake up, you're feeling okay, in the morning, it's Father's Day, you start thinking about your father. You get that feeling that you describe as depression.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

Which is just how. What is that feeling? It's feeling for someone that has never experienced it before.

Dustin Poirier

You know, I've had bouts with depression throughout my career. When it hits me, you know, it hits. It hits me hard. And that day, it hit me. It hit me hard, man. You know, going to the airport, it just feels like everything is. Has a. Its own gravity and it's going to pull me towards the negative no matter what it is. It's like a cloud in my head that I just can't get out from under it. It. It's hard to explain to you unless you've been through it. That's why I try to tell my wife, because she's always so happy and so, you know, which is great. But, like, when I feel like that and it doesn't happen often, but, man, when it hits me, it's bad, you know? It's bad.

Matt D'Avella

Do you remember the first time you felt that?

Dustin Poirier

I don't, but my wife, you know, me and my wife been together a long time, since we were in. Off and on through middle school and high school and all that. But she. She tells me, don't you? Yeah, she tells me, don't you remember? Like, I've always thought something, you know, you never wanted to be around big crowds. You'd go to all the parties with me when I was younger and do all that stuff. Yeah. Because I, I just didn't like to be around that many people that much, you know, I, I, maybe it was anxiety I was dealing with. I don't know. This stuff is all new to me, so I'm just. I would tell her how I feel, and she's like, don't you remember? So she thinks I've been having it, but I started noticing it, you know, more recently. In the last years, three, four years.

Matt D'Avella

Was there a catalyst at all? A catalyst moment, Something that happened that caused you to feel that, or if

Dustin Poirier

I could link it to something, it was. I lost a big fight, Came back home with.

Matt D'Avella

Which fight?

Dustin Poirier

My second fight with Justin Gaethje. Yeah, lost that one. Came back home, everything was good. And then it would just. I was really emotional, man. You know, some days I would be fine, some days I would be sad. And I was like, something's off. You know, Something's off. So that's when I started going to therapy and trying to unpack some of the stuff that I didn't even know I was walking around with, you know?

Matt D'Avella

Did you learn anything through the process of therapy? I've been to therapy, too. I've been. I mean.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, still. The day I got back from Atlanta, I started going to therapy again.

Matt D'Avella

After the apple incident.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. Yeah. Right before I went try to help my father, I went through a therapy session. So I had kind of close the door on therapy when I started feeling good again, you know. But then I'm starting to realize, like, it's not something that you just fix. It's something you have to work on always. And, you know, so. And that's. That's what I'm trying to do, you know, since. For the last week, I've been waking up early, reading some stuff, writing, doing something hard in the morning, just trying to do everything that I was doing that Made me feel better three years ago, and I'm trying my best, man.

Matt D'Avella

Have you learned anything about yourself through the process of therapy?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, that maybe some. Some of the childhood stuff I'm still carrying around. I don't think about it, you know, it's not like the first, you know,

Matt D'Avella

but it's unconscious, a lot of it.

Dustin Poirier

Right, right, right. But deep down, I'm still carrying things, I think, from my childhood. And everybody, you know, I've learned a lot through therapy. Everybody deals with different emotions and process things differently and. And I'm still going through it, you know, I'm back in therapy now.

Matt D'Avella

I've been able to interview lots of people, and so I've interviewed, like, psychologists, lots of them. So many therapists I've interviewed. One of the things that I noticed, which was quite stark to me, was that young boys in particular that grow up without a stable father figure are much more likely to be. Have anger issues, be depressed, struggle in life. But it's actually the data skews more towards young boys without that sort of stable father figure. But also that if you compound that with there being violence in the home from a young age, that's also another factor which exacerbates the situation worse. So those are sort of two of the things that stood out to me was the absence of your father. Also, having a father or a parent that's dealing with addiction is another burden for so many reasons. So those three things are the things that, from your story and from, you know, I thought, oh, that's. Those are. Those are challenges that are understandable to stay with you as a. As an adult.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, for sure. And then you don't even think about. Think about them at all throughout your whole life. And then you sit down with somebody and start opening things up and talking about things. You say, well, maybe I could be, you know, this could be linked to different things, and I could be carrying stuff that isn't mine to carry and things like that. You know, as I'm growing up and being more mature and talking and speaking with professionals and stuff, I'm starting to unpack some of that.

Matt D'Avella

And was that difficult to do therapy?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, yeah, man. Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

You know, difficult to even say, isn't it? Right.

Dustin Poirier

And even at the beginning, when I first started doing interviews, like Ariel Helwani and stuff, and I would bring it up like, I'm, you know, I'm working on myself, I'm going to therapy. I. It felt weak in the moment. Like, who am I? I'm going through therapy. I'm Telling the world I'm going to therapy. But then I look at it, hindsight, I'm like, you know what? That's strength. You know, especially in a tough guy sport. You know, we're fighting and bleeding and beating each other up, beating the best guys up in the world, you know, fighting the best guys in the world. And I need to go to therapy to unpack some stuff. It's just, it's crazy. The human mind is, is incredible.

Matt D'Avella

It's funny because we go to the gym, right, and we like, work on our physical performance, but going to therapy isn't. We're going to hide that.

Dustin Poirier

And the gym was a part of therapy for me. Fighting was a part of therapy, you know, for me. And, and I always, always was scared of that. You know, what am I going to do to, to sabotage myself when I, when I retire from fighting? Because I don't have this outlet anymore. You know, I've done it for 20 years of fighting. I always had somewhere to go. You know, I always had to, to get better at the gym, to, to work on fighting, to focus on something. Every day I could get up and push myself to try to be better, to answer a new question, to do anything with fighting, to get better on multiple levels, whether it's the techniques or whether it's my, my physical fitness, anything. There was always something to work, work on, always. And when I retired, I was kind of worried about that, like, how will life look post fighting? You know, I was scared of it. I was scared of it because, I

Matt D'Avella

mean, you've been fighting since you were what, 16, 17.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

And you're 37 now. So it's just over two decades that fighting has been your kind of North Star and your orientation.

Dustin Poirier

It was always there for me, always there for me. You know, no matter what was going on, I could go to the gym and drowned out any noise in my brain, any, you know, quiet, that voice in your head. And I was scared to not have that anymore. And I still have it. I can still go to the gym every day if I want. But it's not the same. You know, it doesn't feel the same.

Matt D'Avella

It doesn't feel the same.

Dustin Poirier

Not being on the mats, preparing to fight someone for your life and your family's. Well, being in front of the world. If I'm just training just to spin my wheels, it doesn't feel. I've done this my whole life. Training, still fun. I have fun. You know, we do whatever, train, but it's not, it doesn't feel the same to me anymore.

Matt D'Avella

Because there's not a goal, a big goal at the end of it to focus your being.

Dustin Poirier

Exactly.

Matt D'Avella

Hmm. When you look through the last 20 years, do you see fighting as a really productive distraction in some respects then?

Dustin Poirier

For me? Yeah, for me, 100%.

Matt D'Avella

Why?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, it was an outlet. It was something to focus on. It was something to try to be the best at. It was. It consumed me, man. It consumed me. Fighting was my entire life. And now post fighting, it's like separating myself from the fighters. I'm. I'm trying to figure it out still. You know, a. A buddy of mine told me the other day, a wise man told him, if you're lucky, you die twice. If a man's lucky gets to die twice. And that's kind of what I'm going through right now. Now that. That makes sense to me. You know, I'm. That part of me that every day wake up, push yourself to be the best fighter you can be is dead. You know, I'm retired Dustin now. I'm businessman Dustin. I'm father. I'm. I was a father before, when I was still fighting, but I have other things, other hats to wear. You know, it's just. I'm trying to figure it out. I'm trying to figure it all out.

Matt D'Avella

And it's only been 11 months, not even a year.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

July 30th, wasn't it last year that

Dustin Poirier

you retired here in this in New Orleans?

Matt D'Avella

Do they offer you any support with that retirement process as far as. As far as giving you, like, a roadmap for how to deal with the mental shift?

Dustin Poirier

No.

Matt D'Avella

There's no, like, sort of post fighting profile?

Dustin Poirier

No, there should be. For sure, there should be. But no.

Matt D'Avella

Cause it's quite a familiar story across sports.

Dustin Poirier

Right. And that's what I was always. When I would see it happen, I knew I was like, I'm never gonna be that. You know, I'm never gonna be the guy that goes and gets arrested or gets hooked on drugs or blows all of his money and just, you know, you see it over and over and fighting in professional sports, you know, it's like you've done something so long your whole life, so intense. And so, you know, it takes all of you. When it's gone, it's like, what else can I do to the maximum? What else Dopamine hit can I get? What can I just pour myself into and go crazy on something? You know, then a lot of times, it's bad things, dangerous things. You know, you see it time and time again. And I always said, I'll never be that guy. And I'm not. You know, I ran into some trouble the other. The other week, but I'm still making a lot of right decisions. You know what I mean? I'm not that. It just sucks to be at this point to where I always saw those guys getting arrested and doing stuff, and I was like, man, what an idiot. What an idiot. You know? But I wasn't going through it then. I didn't understand it at that time.

Matt D'Avella

And alcohol has been a constant through your childhood, through your career.

Dustin Poirier

For me, drinking, yeah. No, I mean, I.

Matt D'Avella

When you were young.

Dustin Poirier

When I was younger, probably every weekend, you know, but as I became an adult and focused on fighting, I went years without drinking.

Matt D'Avella

Okay.

Dustin Poirier

And then even now. Well, as I. When I retired, it slowly became more and more and more. Because I didn't not have. You know, when I was in training camp, I wasn't getting drunk and drinking like that. I had to wake up the next day and run miles and be at the gym and make a weight. And I was really focused. Um, but when I retired, I didn't have to anymore. So then it kind of started slipping back in. And even when I was fighting, you know, celebrations, gatherings, I would drink. I would drink, but it wasn't a weekly. It wasn't a weekly or daily thing. But I've always had a bad relationship with alcohol. Like, I've always. 90% of the times, if I do drink, I'm going to drink to be the best at drinking. I'm going to drink more than everybody. You know, that's danger. It can benefit you in other things, that. That drive and that craziness, you know, you can focus it on something and it'll benefit you or it can hurt you, you know, and that's. That's the way I've always been. So as learning, learning myself over the years, I know, you know, to be careful with alcohol and going through mental things. Like, I know especially when I'm feeling the way I felt that day, to not touch it, but I just told that voice to shut up, and I just drank and did what I wanted to do, you know, But I know better. As I gotten older, it's gotten better, you know, but until recently, I sat

Matt D'Avella

here with A lady called Dr. Anna Lemke. She's like a dopamine expert. And I actually didn't really know until she. She sat here and explained it to me that alcohol gives you a big hit of dopamine.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

She also said to me that sort of genetically, person to person, we all have a different vice. So for example, she said that she got addicted to erotic novels. Now another person would never get addicted to that. Some people's vice is alcohol. So they do what you described, which is they have one and then it's just straight line up until.

Dustin Poirier

Right.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah. Other people, like, they can have one or two or three and they kind of plateau and they stop and they

Dustin Poirier

go home and I envy them. You know, I have, my wife is like that. One of my good buddies is like that. They can have two drinks and be done. If I drink, we're drinking till the bottle's gone. You know, that's no matter how many times in my life I've said it's going to be different this time. It's going to be, you know, I'm only going to have two. It's never, never worked out. So coming back home, talking to my wife and stuff, I'm going to cut alcohol completely out of my life. You know, I made that decision. I'm not going to be like my father or make another mistake like I made in the airport. It's just, it's not helping me in any way. You know, it might be a quick release and a quick hit of dopamine, but it's not benefiting me in any way. So I got to cut it out, cut it off from my life.

Matt D'Avella

It's not an easy thing to do

Dustin Poirier

with socializing and things like that. It's tougher to be the sober one. But in everyday life it's not hard for me. I've never been an alcoholic. I just have a bad relationship if I do drink. So cutting it out completely is not a big deal.

Matt D'Avella

So take me to that day. Then you wake up, you go to the airport, you're flying to Atlanta, you're going somewhere. Where are you going?

Dustin Poirier

Atlanta. I'm going to. To South Florida. It was actually a three leg trip. I was supposed to go to South Florida for a day that afternoon, fly out, go to la, shoot a commercial for three days from LA Vegas, work for CBS for the weekend and then fly home. So it was a three, it was a big trip. Yeah, three leg trips. We didn't even get the first leg. We didn't even get the first leg, man.

Matt D'Avella

There should be a button just down below here. And if it says subscribed, you're already subscribed. If it says subscriber, that means you're not yet. And if you're not subscribed, please, could you do us a Favor and hit that button. It helps the show more than you know. And according to the algorithm, you're someone that watches our show, but you haven't yet hit that button. Thank you so much. What happened? What were the sequence of events on

Dustin Poirier

my flight from Lafayette, Louisiana? I drank two champagnes, nothing crazy, you know, Just landed in Atlanta, had a little bit of a layover, went to a bar, restaurant, bar, started drinking champagne. Some guys came in, took some shots. One thing led to another. Go to my gate, get into it with the desk agent. They call security, call the police.

Matt D'Avella

Do you remember what you said to the desk agent?

Dustin Poirier

No. No.

Matt D'Avella

The police didn't tell you after?

Dustin Poirier

No.

Matt D'Avella

So you didn't even get on the plane?

Dustin Poirier

No, I never got on the plane. I don't believe. I'm pretty sure. 90, 90% sure. I never got on the plane. And it might have been that the desk agent might have saw I was intoxicated, and it's like, no, we can't get on this plane. And that's might have what started it, I don't know. But I do want to apologize to those desk agents, whoever they are, and the police for having to put up with me, man. They did it. I actually asked a lawyer in Atlanta who I've been working with, if he can please give me that officer's information, his address. I want to. If I can write him a letter, his cell phone, if I can call him just to tell him how great of a job he did, you know, dealing with a person in that condition and how professional he was, and, you know, he's incredible. It could have been so much worse. It could have been so much worse. I just want to thank him. I didn't get to do that.

Matt D'Avella

So there's some kind of argument with the desk agents that you. I'm guessing you can't recall.

Dustin Poirier

No.

Matt D'Avella

And then they say you're not getting on the flight.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. And that leads to them calling the police, the security or police.

Matt D'Avella

And the airport video we see is of the security guy coming in, the police officer.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

You've watched the video, right?

Dustin Poirier

No. So my wife watched it. A buddy of mine. I've kind of pieced it together at this point. I don't want to see it, man.

Matt D'Avella

You don't want to see it?

Dustin Poirier

I don't want to see it. Okay. I don't want to see it. Even when my wife started playing it and I heard it, she went watching the other room. And then I have a buddy I work out with five days a week. He's Kind of between him and my wife. I've put the pieces together and pretty pretty much know the extent of what happened.

Matt D'Avella

Why don't you want to watch it?

Dustin Poirier

I just don't want. Don't want to see it, man.

Matt D'Avella

Can you articulate why that is?

Dustin Poirier

To see myself in that condition, Disrespecting police officers, disrespecting workers at the airport, disrespecting myself, disrespect my family. I just don't feel like it's going to benefit me to see that. If anything, I think it's going to bring me down. It's going to. I'm going to keep thinking about it. Like I said, for the most part, understand what happened, know what happened. I don't need a seat again, you know.

Matt D'Avella

So in that video, you seem to get aggressive quite quickly. And you. You offered this gentleman a fight. He kind of backs off. He knows who you are. Clearly, straight away, he backs off. What I find interesting also is he pulls out his taser. He's gonna. He says, you know, might tase you. But as you walk away and you're arrested, you dap him up and you congratulate him on the job. He did.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, my buddy was telling me that. He was telling me, like, my buddy's wife thinks that's the best part of the video.

Matt D'Avella

It's the best part because it's funny, because you're known as.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, so I didn't watch the video at all. And every day passing, I'd be able to piece a little bit more together and memories kind of, you know, flashes of what happened are kind of playing in my head. But I got home, deleted all my social. I posted that on Instagram. Then I uninstalled all social media off my phone. So I haven't since Father's or the day after Father's Day. I haven't been on anything I haven't seen. I know they're making fun. I know they're talking about me. Obviously, I've been in the light with being a professional athlete for a long time. I know how this goes. So I just uninstalled all my stuff. So I haven't seen any of the clips, any of the videos, any of the. Anything, you know, besides what my wife and my buddy are telling me.

Matt D'Avella

Your buddy that you train with?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah. Well, it was. It was. It was interesting because you. You seemed, as you walked away, you were quite polite.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, that's what I told him. I was like, maybe I realized what was going on, you know, maybe I Had a aha moment. Like, what the hell is. What am I doing? You know, in that drunken stupor. I don't know.

Matt D'Avella

You said to him that he did a good job, right?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

Which was quite nice.

Dustin Poirier

Right. And I. Looking back at it now, with what they're telling me and the way he handled it, he did a great job. You know, I need to thank him, because like I said, it could have been so much worse. What if it was a young hothead cop who wanted to be a superstar or wanted to. You know, it could have been horrible. You know, I could be sitting here facing serious charges, and just to put my wife and my children through that, you know, just. Yeah, it's not good.

Matt D'Avella

So you went to jail that day?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

You got charged with being drunk and disorderly or intoxicated?

Dustin Poirier

No, they charged me with public intoxication.

Matt D'Avella

Okay. And they let you go the same day?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, I spent, like a night. Spent the night or the afternoon in jail until I sobered up.

Matt D'Avella

And they release you on probation or something?

Dustin Poirier

I'm not on. Well, what's it called?

Matt D'Avella

I don't know what the laws are here.

Dustin Poirier

I haven't been to court and all that stuff yet, so they just know they. On bond.

Matt D'Avella

Okay. On bond. Okay. And that's when you go in, you know, after. Then go and you do the therapy session. You go and try and find your father.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

All these trips are canceled, I'm guessing at that point.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

You have to go home and speak to your wife.

Dustin Poirier

Right, Right.

Matt D'Avella

Can't be easy.

Dustin Poirier

It wasn't fun for sure, you know, to let her down. And it's just been so long since. I don't even know how to address it, really. When I. When I got home, I haven't been in trouble. I haven't been arrested in so long, you know, decades and decades.

Matt D'Avella

I don't.

Dustin Poirier

I don't even know when's the last time I got arrested. This is the first time in a. In a very long time. But to go back and my. My partner, who's been with me through everything and. And has grown with me through everything, to go back and, like, see her face to face. Yeah, I just keep apologizing and it'll never happen again.

Matt D'Avella

If I'm a fly on the wall during that conversation, when you get home, what do I observe?

Dustin Poirier

Me telling her it'll never happen, never happen again, and her telling me it can't happen again. You. Yeah, man. I'm telling her that I'm going to focus on myself and be better from This. I know it sucks right now in the moment, but this decision, this arrest, this quit drinking for the rest of my life is going to benefit me and my kids in the future. So things happen, you learn, and that's just what it is, you know?

Matt D'Avella

You met her, Jolie, when you were 14 years old.

Dustin Poirier

Younger.

Matt D'Avella

Younger. Really?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. 14 is like a freshman in high school. We were dating in middle school.

Matt D'Avella

And in many respects, she's really. She sacrificed quite a lot for your career. A lot.

Dustin Poirier

A lot. She dropped out of college and moved with me to South Florida for me to chase my dreams

Matt D'Avella

because she was going to nursing school, wasn't she? Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. And I honestly don't think I would have made it to the point I made it to in. In fighting if I didn't have an anchor like that at home, you know, Man, she'd been my best friend for a. Yeah. So. So to go home after getting arrested and speaking to her and, like, not only did I let myself down, but I have a family, you know, I have kids. I let my family down, man. That's what hurts.

Matt D'Avella

This is another beautiful photo. Yeah, the gang.

Dustin Poirier

That's them. Yeah, man. I let them down. Let myself down. But like I said, I'm going to learn from this and continue pushing forward, and it will never happen again. It's going to affect the trajectory of my whole life. This one. This one arrest, you know, my son and my daughter is never going to grow up and see me intoxicated. They're never going to see me say things or do things I don't mean to do or mean to say, you know? So, like I said, it sucks, man. It's bad. But it's going to benefit me and my family in the long run. So it's just something that had to happen, I guess.

Matt D'Avella

So, did she know what had happened before you got back from jail? Had she seen videos or. No, no, no, no, she hadn't. No.

Dustin Poirier

The police officer called her when I was in a holding cell and stuff. So, yeah, she knew what was going on. She didn't know in the moment if. She probably knew a couple hours after, you know, once they booked me and all that.

Matt D'Avella

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Dustin Poirier

I'm not seeing what people are saying.

Matt D'Avella

It wasn't the sentiment, I can tell you, it was like. It was crazy. I was like. I was saying it to my fiance. I was saying, like, the reason why the sentiment has been. He's going through some things, and this is a good man, is because, a, you've conducted yourself so well throughout your career. You've had good values in victory and in. And in loss, but also, I think, because you'd actually spoken about some of these struggles publicly.

Dustin Poirier

I've never bit my tongue. I've always been open, you know, about what I'm going through. When I was able to pinpoint and talk about what I was going through, when I didn't know, I couldn't speak on it. But as I got older and started doing therapy, I'm able to speak on it. And, yeah, I am going through things some days, you know.

Matt D'Avella

Well, that's what I'd say to you is, I know you've not looked at the Internet, but the Internet has been heavily supportive of you.

Dustin Poirier

And, you know, Matt, I think a lot of that probably is longtime fight fans and people who've been following my career a long time. You know, I grew up in fighting, so people got to watch me from a kid, you know, grow up, so they. They know my character. For the most part. It was a bad day. It wasn't. You know, it's not a bad life. I had. I messed up. I had a really bad day where I was angry at the world, and obviously, alcohol doesn't. Doesn't help that, and I really messed up. But people have seen me year after year, and I mean well, and I really mean it, and I think they know it's authentic. But I am just a human being, and I make mistakes. So I think those fans. If people are sticking up for me, it's because they know it's Dustin. Like, I'm gonna. He's gonna shake back, or he's gonna, you know, turn this into a positive somehow. And that's my goal, you know, I don't want to let anybody else out there down. I'm trying my best. You know, I have to take care of myself first, and I'm doing that the right steps. And that's just it. I think the people who are standing up for me have watched me grow up, you know.

Matt D'Avella

Well, dare I say, I think that was the majority of the sentiment, was that this is a good man who's struggling, and it was people sending sympathy because of that. But also because there's a couple of clips that went viral online of you speaking on both Theo Von's show and Joe Rogan's show. And so in the. In the. In the wake of, you know, this clip going viral of you in the airport, these other clips go viral with them, which is you. Oh, you haven't seen it. Okay.

Dustin Poirier

I mean, obviously I did the. I did the interviews or whatever you're talking about, so I said it. So I'm sure if you showed it, I would remember, but I haven't seen what people are talking about.

Matt D'Avella

Well, this clip went viral at the same time, and this is what gave it context.

Dustin Poirier

Have to. Yeah, you just.

Matt D'Avella

There's no.

Dustin Poirier

If you get complacent or if you. Why What I'm like, it's honestly, bro, I'm a danger to myself when I'm have nothing. No. No goal circle on my calendar. I'm a danger to myself, man. Yeah, yeah. I beat myself up mentally. I'm home, I drink, I'm. It's just not good. I have to have some kind of battle. Yeah, yeah. And I've always been like that. But like, as I'm getting older, I'm kind of recognizing. Oh, you can see it more. Yeah. So I kind of set, set goals.

Matt D'Avella

So that clip went viral, and there was a clip just like it of you on Joe Rogan, which is you saying almost identically the same thing, which also went viral with it. So this gave everybody context. And so you see that and you go, okay, we understand. And I think we're now, you know, we're old enough, mature enough to understand that once a pro athlete leaves the high octane, high adrenaline sport like ufc, that your brain has changed for sure. And not least because of the dopamine. But also, you know, there's other reasons why there's. Head injuries are quite prevalent in the sport. So there was a huge amount of sympathy. I just wanted you to know that. Cause I know you've not seen it,

Dustin Poirier

but I mean, I still feel horrible, but, you know, and not even using fighting or head trauma or my homeless father or any of that stuff as an excuse. I just want to say that, like, I did these things. I know better. I know right and wrong. I don't want to lean on these as a crutch of my actions. You know what I mean?

Matt D'Avella

And the other clip that when. Just so, you know, just so because of these. This is you and Joe Rogan talking about similar thing.

Dustin Poirier

Show I was talking about. It's like a gift and a curse, man. It's like you have to be all in at something. Those kind of people who are built like that, whether it's fighting or drinking or whether it's good or bad, you're going all in. It's dangerous.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

The problem is, like, we see with Conor, when they don't have the fighting, then they go all in with the other things. Yeah, yeah, right. Fighting was always, for me, always pulled everything together, you know, that's why, like, retiring is scary, man. Man, days are long. I have a lot of time. It's. I don't have to get ready for a fight. I don't. You know, you're still a young man, too. You still have a whole lot of life ahead of you. 37, man. Yeah. So it makes you think, like, what do I do now? What do I do with my future? What do I do? What do you want to do? Dude, I kind of got, like, for a week or so, I wouldn't say depressed, but I kind of got into, like a funk. Like, what the hell am I going to do with my life? Every day I would wake up for the last 20 years, how can I be better fighter? How can I. What's new in fitness? How can I push myself? I want to be the champion. And then, boom, you lay the gloves down and you wake up and you're a fucking civilian.

Matt D'Avella

And that's meant that, you know, some of your fellow peers, like Jon Jones, have come out and said some really nice things and other fighters have come out and said some really nice things and sent their support and, you know, well wishes.

Dustin Poirier

I appreciate it. I'm working on myself. I'm trying my best.

Matt D'Avella

Were you aware that Jon Jones had done a post and stuff?

Dustin Poirier

My buddy Kyle said, the guy who I work out with every day, I'm talking about. He told me that Jon Jones came out and said something and it was positive. He said Matt Brown as well, a former fighter, did a video. He said it was really nice and stuff. And I'm sure I'll see some of that stuff. I don't want to, like, relive the moment that much. I don't want to keep, like, diving back. But when I do get back on social media or do start watching videos and stuff again, I'm sure I'm going to see some of it, you know, and I appreciate everybody, but I just, it feels weird to, you know, I'm not looking for that, for sympathy or to make this okay. It's not okay, you know. You know, it's not.

Matt D'Avella

But I think the reason I'm sort of really keen to tell you is once upon a time we didn't really understand mental health. And so people were thought to be crazy or whatever when they acted out of character. But I think the world has gotten to such a place now where we, we think about context a bit more. And this was really, it was really nice to see for me, having done a little bit of background research as well, to see that people's first reaction wasn't just to villainize somebody, it was to understand people actually went, oh, no, this is someone struggling with their mental health. It's not a bad person, it's a bad mental health situation, which I've actually not really seen before, which was, as I say, it was really nice. But I know you, I know what you're saying. You're saying you don't want to blame anything, right?

Dustin Poirier

I don't want to blame anything or have a crutch to lean on about my actions, about what happened. You know, I did it. I'm not blaming it on mental health or anything like that. Even though I'm focusing on that now, you know, I did that. I decided to drink that day when I wasn't feeling well. It's all on me.

Matt D'Avella

So is it kind of a bit of a roller coaster in your post fighting in terms of your mental health? Is it ups and downs? And ups and downs?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, big time.

Matt D'Avella

And what is the.

Dustin Poirier

Some days I wake up and I feel like I made the right decision, you know, I need to be home, I need to be doing things around the house, I need to be here every day with my kids, making them breakfast. And then some days I wake up and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing? I can beat all these guys still. You know, I can still beat these guys, but I don't know if that ever leaves. I might be 60 year old having coffee one day saying the same thing, I could beat these guys. I don't know if that's just a competitive spirit. I don't know if that's just fighting your whole life. I don't know. But these top guys that are winning now and fighting now on these upcoming cards, I can beat them still. I know I can. And then I wake up the next day and I'm like, ah, good thing I don't have to fight these guys anymore. Then the next day it's like, I can be the world champion. You know, it's just up and down every day.

Matt D'Avella

And how does your mental health sort of correlate to those ups and those thoughts?

Dustin Poirier

Even though I have those days where I want to fight and think I Made the right decision. My mental health has been pretty even, you know, up until recently. I haven't been worried about myself or having to go to my journal and sit in the morning and have coffee. Like I've been doing this last week, you know, But I, when I do start feeling 100 normal, okay again, I need to continue to do those things. You know, I can't, I can't stop because I feel good. It's, it's a constant. It. Something's going on with my brain. Like I have to practice these, these things every day. And now being removed from the incident, removed from my three years ago when I felt really bad and I was in the dark place. I'm realizing that like it's, it's not a eureka moment where you're fixed. You gotta, this is everyday work for the rest of your life. Most likely. I'm pretty sure.

Matt D'Avella

Was it just the last week or was it you said in recent times,

Dustin Poirier

in recent times that was like the, the boiling point on Father's Day. But there's been days, yeah, there's been days where I've not express to my wife how I'm feeling and I was feeling down.

Matt D'Avella

Or the last two months, couple, few months.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, there's good days, bad days, you

Matt D'Avella

know, where you haven't expressed to your wife how you're feeling.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, some days I will tell her, but some days I don't, you know, just continue to go along my day and, you know, so I don't want to be that guy to where I wake up and my wife's worried about how I'm feeling that day. You know, I don't want her worrying about me like that. I wonder who, who's waking up today is, is depressed, is upset Dustin waking up today or is this my normal husband? I'm waking up too. I don't want to worry her. So some days, you know, if I'm feeling really bad, which hasn't been that often lately, I'll tell her, you know, today I'm not feeling that well. I don't want my daughter coming in the, in the bedroom, you know, why is that? Staying in bed all day, you know, I don't want to tell her again that I'm not feeling good today. You know, she doesn't understand I have a. She's about to be 10 years old. She. She can't comprehend what's going on. I can barely comprehend it, you know, so to keep them more on a steady day to day thing, if, if it's just slightly, I'm kind of feeling a little bit off today. I just suck it up and go about, you know, my business.

Matt D'Avella

But there will be days where you stay in bed all day.

Dustin Poirier

There has been. Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

And you try and sort of avoid the conversation with, like, your daughter. Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

It's not often, but it happens.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah. Do you find that if you don't talk about it, it kind of comes out in other ways? Cause I.

Dustin Poirier

Well, you bottle it up so long until it finds a way out, you know?

Matt D'Avella

Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

Which kind of brings us to the airport incident, I guess. Could be to some degree.

Dustin Poirier

Right. But even the airport incident, those days leading up, even if I did have an off day, I didn't feel like it was that. That bad, that serious, that dangerous to myself or anybody else, you know. I really didn't feel like that.

Matt D'Avella

It's an interesting thing I've often actually contended with. When I'm having, like, bad moments, do I tell my partner? So I can really relate to the feeling because in part, I think as a man, sometimes you want to be. You have it within you that you need to be strong and steady. Especially with my fiance, I'm like, I have to be strong and steady. So if I'm having a bad day or whatever, I feel like I have to keep it to myself. But then it always finds a way out and it hurts her. Like, it'll hurt the relationship. So actually, I think with age, I've gone actually to avoid all problems. Be honest as fast as you can. Right?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. Honesty is always the best. It's always the best.

Matt D'Avella

Is that kind of how you feel as well with it, or is it similar?

Dustin Poirier

I mean, for the most part, I am really open and honest, but, like, if I'm just kind of feeling off and it's for me to. I know you don't understand what that. What that means. Or maybe you have something you can link it to when you feel kind of just like today's not. Not my day. If I'm feeling off, I'll let her know I've been pretty honest. But like I said, if it's just slight, like I'm just not feeling right, I won't. If it's slight, I won't. I won't even bring it up. I got to be a dad and continue to do things every day and stuff like that. But if I'm feeling really down to where I don't even wanna leave the house at all and stuff, you know, I'll let my wife know.

Matt D'Avella

On this point of purpose, when you were talking To Thea and Joe, you were saying that, you know, the purpose you had for 20 years has now gone. So in its place, you kind of need to find something else. You need to figure out what's in its place. How are you thinking about that?

Dustin Poirier

Today I retired at 36 years old. That's young. Like I said, the days are long. I have all day, every day to. I need to stay busy. And that's what I have been doing, you know, working with cbs, working with the podcast we have down in South Florida every Monday. I've just been trying to saying yes to as much stuff as I can. So I'm don't have time to sit back and think. And that could have been my demise as well. Maybe I was being too busy. Maybe I wasn't focusing on my mental health and myself as much. You know, it's easy to get lost in these whirlwinds of busy and be here, be there. You know, life just moves so fast sometimes.

Matt D'Avella

Do you have a plan for what you want to commit yourself to? You're 37 now, right? So, I mean, you got another 50, 50 years ahead of you to climb other mountains potentially, right?

Dustin Poirier

No, I don't have anything like lockdown, what I'm going to do, exactly what I'm going to focus everything on. But I need to find something, man.

Matt D'Avella

Has there ever been anything that compared?

Dustin Poirier

No, nothing ever will. Nothing. I have a void inside of me that nothing. You know, being a father is very fulfilling and I love it and it's rewarding and I actually enjoy it. But nothing feels that void of what fighting was in my life. You know, I haven't found anything yet. I don't think there is.

Matt D'Avella

You don't think there is.

Dustin Poirier

I just don't know what's going to consume me and take all of myself the way fighting did. You know, I woke up thinking about it. I went to sleep thinking about was my life, man. I cared so much about it, man. I was in love with it.

Matt D'Avella

You can still play a role in the industry though, no?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, and that's what I do. And that's what I thought I was, you know, was a good avenue. That's what I was trying to do. That was my goal after fighting is I want to stick around the sport, whether I'm on the desk, broadcast or with the podcast, anything containing to the sport where I can talk about it, you know, be around the sport that's given me everything I have and taught me so many lessons in life. I just want to be around it. Speaking about it, being on the mats, helping younger fighters, whatever, you know, and I was doing. And I was doing that when I retired. You know, I'm still doing it, but

Matt D'Avella

it's not the same.

Dustin Poirier

It's not the same? No.

Matt D'Avella

How does it compare as a percentage? Is it 20% the way there, 50%

Dustin Poirier

the way there, or probably closer to 20. It's not even 50. No.

Matt D'Avella

Have you spoken to other fighters who have expressed the exact same sentiment that, like, fighting was the Mount Everest for me, and I don't know what to do next, that really.

Dustin Poirier

To that exact point. But other fighters have reached out and said, hey, you know, I'm all ears if you ever want to talk about it. I went through it as well. You know, laying the gloves down isn't as easy as you think. You know, people who I look up to, you have reached out to me, and I never took anybody up on it. You know, I never started speaking to other fighters about what they do to get past, and I should. You know, it's all. It's my doing, you know, because it's not.

Matt D'Avella

It's not a new problem, is it?

Dustin Poirier

No, this is.

Matt D'Avella

Everyone but lots of people have expressed. Right.

Dustin Poirier

And it's not just a new problem with fighting. It's a new problem, I think, with a lot of athletes, you know, who've done it for a long time and reached the pinnacle and, you know, when it's over, you know, you have a lot of life left to live.

Matt D'Avella

I've heard similar sentiments expressed from some of my friends that were in the military and then left the military. 36, 37 years old. And it's like that was their Everest. That was also the camaraderie that they had. Being in camp, being on base and stuff like that and going away, being deployed, and then they come back and they're a civilian all of a sudden.

Dustin Poirier

Right, Right.

Matt D'Avella

It's difficult.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, man, but that's life. Life's difficult, you know, it's just got to figure something else out, you know, I gotta figure, solve a new puzzle. It's just life keeps going.

Matt D'Avella

You were going off to work when you were caught up in this airport incident?

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

How are you thinking about work prospects and stuff like that, considering all that swirling around at the moment and all

Dustin Poirier

these things, worried about losing everything I've been working on, you know, that is a possibility as well. You know, Like post fighting, when I retired, all the stuff that I've been doing, all the. The desk work that. Me focusing on getting better at all that stuff, I'M like, did I just ruin everything that I. That I was working for? You know, I don't know yet. It's still too. Too early to really have those answers, I think.

Matt D'Avella

Have you got sponsors and stuff like that, or is it just your partners where you do guesswork and podcasts and stuff like that?

Dustin Poirier

No, I have a bunch of sponsors. Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

And they've been understanding.

Dustin Poirier

It's kind of murky right now. I think it's still too fresh. I know one big one isn't a sponsor anymore.

Matt D'Avella

Oh, you lost a sponsor?

Dustin Poirier

Oh, yeah. I'm sure I lost a few. I'm waiting to see when the smoke clears who's still with me or not. That day cost me not only embarrassment and embarrassment to my family. It cost me a lot of money too, you know, I'm losing sponsors, I'm losing gigs and losing things that I had set up, you know.

Matt D'Avella

You're losing gigs you had set up in the future as well?

Dustin Poirier

Well, we'll see. Obviously, the gigs, the three things I was supposed to do that, that week are gone, and then the. A big sponsor of mine is gone because of it.

Matt D'Avella

And of the. Of the professional commitments you have coming up, what are those kinds of things that you have? I know you. You said in an interview that I watched that you'd reached out to. Was it Paramount?

Dustin Poirier

Oh, I worked with Paramount.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah, you work with them, but you'd reached out to them to say, listen, I want to sharpen my skills as a commentator, as a desk analyst. Desk analyst. And so you'd reached out to them post, you know, post retirement, because you wanted to get more and more into that. I just thought it was really cool that you proactively reached out to them and said, listen, I'm.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, yeah. If you guys think that I would be a good fit anywhere on a broadcast or anything, I would love to talk about fighting and talk about this sport as it continues to grow with what I've learned through the two decades of doing it. You know, if I can be a voice in this area, please let me do it. And they did, you know, and I told them, like, I'm coachable. I don't have no hard feelings. Like, if I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. I'm very, you know, because a lot of these other people who work the desk come from a media background or things like that. Of course we have a lot of fighters, but who work the desk. But a lot of these other people might not take criticism in coaching as well as somebody who's been coached their whole life. So I'm letting them know, like, if. If there's something I'm doing that it's not the right etiquette. It's not. If I. If I can do something better, please let me know. Coach me. I'm not. It's no judgment. You're never gonna rub me the wrong way. Please let me know. I want to be good at this. That's what I was trying to let them know.

Matt D'Avella

Well, it's cool. It's cool because a lot of people, they come in with a lot of ego, especially if they've been at the peak of their powers in one profession. They kind of don't want to humble themselves enough to be a whole new thing for me.

Dustin Poirier

You know, talking on TV and talking about fights and things like that is a whole new thing. So I wanted to learn as much as I can.

Matt D'Avella

And you have a contract with them? Yeah, I did.

Dustin Poirier

We'll see.

Matt D'Avella

Oh, you're worried that it might not be.

Dustin Poirier

It could be, yeah.

Matt D'Avella

I guess when something like this.

Dustin Poirier

I had a year contract with Paramount, CBS to work the desks for the fights.

Matt D'Avella

Okay, Well, I hope they all stick with you.

Dustin Poirier

We'll see. I think in a few weeks, I'm back on the podcast, so I know they're bringing me back to the Monday podcast. We talk about fights every Monday. In two weeks, I'll be back on that, and so we'll see if that continues.

Matt D'Avella

The other thing is, you are young. You're 37. I'm 33. And you're young. Yeah. Yeah. That's how I can. I can almost relate. It would be like if my career was. Was wrapping up in a couple of years, like my main. You know, but I'm in the. I guess my career is business, so I can kind of do that forever.

Dustin Poirier

Well, for sure.

Matt D'Avella

But if I. If I had to. If I'd spent the last 20 years of my life. I've spent the last 15 years of my life building businesses. So if I wrapped up in a couple of years time and I had to change profession and I couldn't do what I've done for the last 20 years anymore, gosh, that's what athletes go through, for sure. They climb the mountain and then aging happens and they get older like we all do, and then they have to say, right, brand new mountain. That doesn't happen to most people. In most careers, you kind of just keep climbing up.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, yeah, true. I never thought about it, comparing it to other. Other careers.

Matt D'Avella

Do you enjoy the. The desk Work.

Dustin Poirier

I really do, man. Yeah, that's why I'm scared to lose it too, because I really enjoy being connected to the sport. You know, this sport has, like I said, given me everything I have, Me and my family, everything we have is through fighting.

Matt D'Avella

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Dustin Poirier

I mean, the career I've had.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

I don't have to work another day in my life.

Matt D'Avella

Really? Yeah. Oh, congratulations. Well done. Cause a lot of people also, they go out and they. You know, we hear the stories of buying a little too many watches or gambling or whatever it might be.

Dustin Poirier

I need to stop gambling. That's what I need to do. I told my wife the other day, she was like. She's like, I just paid some bills. I saw you made another deposit to the gambling thing. I was like, I can't cold turkey everything. Give me one. Let's go. One thing at a time. One thing. Gambling's a couple steps up on the list. I got some other things I need to stop doing first.

Matt D'Avella

Well, if you can take care of yourself the rest of your life, then, you know, all good. Right. To. To have fun still.

Dustin Poirier

Right.

Matt D'Avella

Right.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

So a lot of. A lot of people, a lot of fighters, a lot of people generally can't say that when they leave, but I've always.

Dustin Poirier

You know, I have a few businesses in Louisiana and elsewhere. I've always planted seeds my whole. My whole life. You know, I started investing when I was 23 years old, you know, before I was even making real, real money. I was investing what little I had. I always planted these seeds because I. I knew I couldn't fight forever. It was going to end any. Any, you know, I could get in a car accident and never fight again. It could end any day with fighting. I knew that. So I've always planted seeds to try to have my future taken care of, you know, always or since a young age.

Matt D'Avella

Smart.

Dustin Poirier

Actually, when I was, like, 18, 19, I told my wife, I'm not. I'm not going to fight past 35 years old. And I almost hit that mark. I was too young to at the time when I told her that. Too young to see the, you know, full picture and know how my career was going to play out. But 36, I hung it up. I told her, from a very young age, 35, I lived half my life, and I have a whole nother life to live at 35. I can go to college. I can go. I can do, be whatever I want to be. I have a whole other life to live. So I kind of always angled at 35 just to pivot, and that was the moment.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah, man, that's the moment where you retired.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

How does it feel looking at that photo, man?

Dustin Poirier

These are my brothers in this picture, man.

Matt D'Avella

I can see the emotion in your faces.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, my mother's back there, and this is my family. You know, all these guys are my family members. It was a special day, and I got to do it in Louisiana, you know, it meant a lot to me. It really meant a lot to me. Well, Yeah, man. I was just a kid chasing dreams, and it just flew by so quick, and I. I guess that's a part of me that's. I scared for the future is. I don't. I don't know, you know, for 20 years, I was dreaming about being the best. I just want to dream again, you know? I don't know what that dream will be. I just need that in my life, whatever that is.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

Special day, man.

Matt D'Avella

So many emotions in your face as you look at that photo.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. I'm trying not to tear up, dude.

Matt D'Avella

How come?

Dustin Poirier

Because it just makes me feel that way, you know, Because I still love it, but I know I need to walk away from it, you know, Continue walking away from it, but I still love it. And like I told you, it's like a piece of me, like those gloves, me putting them on the mat is a piece of myself I left, you know, I really, truly believe that. You know, I was a kid when I started this, the fight life. It taught me how to be a man. It taught me how to do business. It taught me a lot of things about myself. I didn't go to school. Fighting was my education, you know, traveled the world and met people and sat at tables I would have never dreamed of, you know, sitting at, through fighting. It was just an incredible journey, you know? But if I can go back in time to when I was a kid, 16, 17, if I could do it again, I would do it again. Even knowing everything that what could be, what damage I could take, I would do it again. That's how fun the ride was. But nobody rides for free, you know? That's why I'm saying I would do it again. The damage, the ups, the downs, the unknown. Nobody rides for free. Whether you're working, clocking in at a job, working in an office for your whole life, you know, or you're fighting men all over the world. We're exchanging something, you know, for something. So I would do it again. Just glad I got to do it here in Louisiana, you know, where it all started. Yeah, that was special to me, because UFC doesn't come here often. To Louisiana. The time they came before my retirement was back in 2015, and I fought on that, on that one as well. To get them to come back here just for my retirement was a big deal, and I'm proud of that and proud of bringing it back to the city. You know, I have a game room at my house, and I have this. The UFC actually sent me a retirement big picture frame with my wife, my daughter. Their name was on the canvas for this fight, and I didn't even know the UFC printed their names on the. On the canvas of the octagon, so they cut them out of the thing, and they have them framed in a nice shadow box with pictures from the fight and their names and stuff. That was. That was really nice, man. So I had this picture hanging on my wall in my game room in my house. I got. Actually, I need to call Mike. This guy here, and this Mike Brown, I need to call him back. He tried to call me, and he's been texting me the last few days. I need to call him back, let him know I'm good. You know, I've been silence in every call. You know, not just not wanting to talk to people since Father's Day, but I need to start. I need to reach back out.

Matt D'Avella

There's a lot in your head, isn't there? That photo seems to have teleported you back.

Dustin Poirier

You know, I'm just thinking. Thinking about that night, thinking about the guys in the picture, seeing my mom in the background, you know, my friends. It was just incredible night, and it hurts me a little bit, like, to. To be sitting here talking about getting arrested last week. Like, it feels like such a fall from grace, you know, looking at this picture, like I was on top of the world in this moment. I felt like I did it all the right way. You know, even had the UFC place on Otra. I did it my way when I was walking out the octagon that. That night, and, you know, just. It's life.

Matt D'Avella

That's life.

Dustin Poirier

That's life.

Matt D'Avella

It's life. It's part of the. Part of the hero's journey is the. The ups, the downs, the redemptions, the. All of it and everything you teach. You know, it's funny because when I think about your earliest context, it was, in my objective, subjective view, difficult. It was a real challenge. You got a father that's an alcoholic, the violence in the home, growing up in a, you know, in a working class area, and you rose from there, and look what happened.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, it was beautiful.

Matt D'Avella

And then look at you.

Dustin Poirier

Know, I'm proud of it.

Matt D'Avella

And then the roller coasters go down, too, and that's why they. They're so good when they go the opposite way and such. And. And so this is just. And for me, this is maybe just the platform of your next era, you know, for sure.

Dustin Poirier

Whatever that is, I'm here for it. But, man, I'm just learning and living and trying my best just like everyone else.

Matt D'Avella

It's incredible, though, what you've proven that you can do, you know, from.

Dustin Poirier

I honestly, no bs, look you in the eyes. Like, I feel like anything I set my mind to, I can accomplish. I can make it happen.

Matt D'Avella

You've done that.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

You don't need to look me in the eyes and obs me. You've done something that, you know, very few men could ever, ever accomplish, especially considering where you came from. So I think I am quite excited to see what you set your mind to next, because if that's what you're able to accomplish by 35 years old or something, God only knows what you could do with the next two decades of your life if you aimed all that energy at a equally terrifying goal.

Dustin Poirier

I would love to. That's what I need. Something terrifying. I need something like that. Something that I can't stop thinking about,

Matt D'Avella

you know, and you've got the mentality that few have. Right. Like, to accomplish this, you've got something. The core components to be wildly successful, as you say, with whatever you put your mind to, so.

Dustin Poirier

But I'm not scared to work for it, you know?

Matt D'Avella

At this moment in this photo, were your family encouraging you to hang up the gloves?

Dustin Poirier

My wife was. Nobody else in my family? No.

Matt D'Avella

How come?

Dustin Poirier

She was pregnant. She was a couple months away from giving. A few months away from giving birth to my son. I had been doing it for a long time. We just kind of both knew it was about the time, you know, you

Matt D'Avella

said you were scared because of the void of purpose that would be in your life thereafter. But I've also heard you say you're scared of, like, the brain injuries that fighters often get in the wake of any sort of contact sport. I had the great privilege of interviewing arguably the world's leader on cte. And for people that don't know, CTE is a progressive brain disease caused by repeated head trauma leading to abnormal protein buildup, which lead to brain decline. Older adults with a history of traumatic brain injuries have a 230% greater risk of developing Alzheimer's than those without. 61% of UFC fighters stated they worry about Potential long term brain damage, with a good percentage, about 21% noticing differences in their brain function after their fighting career. And lastly, a 2023 study found that more than 40% of brains from contact sport players who died before the age of 30 had CTE. I think I heard you say that you were concerned about brain damage or brain trauma from, from fighting.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, part of me laying the gloves down, like I said for my wife wanting me to, was because she was kind of worried about my behavior a few years back. And I went to a neurologist and did a scan with contrast where they put the dye in your brain and your veins and do all that stuff. And I have, I had some, you know, changes in my brain, but we don't have a passport of before or throughout the process. You know, we just have a snapshot of right now of my brain. But yeah, the doctor, the neurologist told me that, you know, it has to be post humorous. You can't, you put a chemical in the brain, it releases a protein, you know, if you. So we won't know until I pass away. And they study my brain if I, if I have it or not. But the doctor was telling me, like, you know, looking at the things you have going on, like, I can't say you have it.

Matt D'Avella

But your wife was noticing different behavior.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, just like emotional and

Matt D'Avella

it's not a conversation people have a lot about ctu. I actually, I only learned about it about a year ago when I interviewed this person. And I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that athletes that are doing contact sports, kids that are doing American football are.

Dustin Poirier

And not only fighting, I play football all my youth, you know, as well. So I'm sure my head's been rattled a good bit.

Matt D'Avella

I have a brain scan here, which is really for the listeners at home to show them what, what advanced CTE looks like on the brain. But it is these kind of like plaques that kind of build up in the brain from contact head injuries and what the symptoms of that are often mental health disorders. They are. And there's a spectrum of addictions also sort of associated with cte. People sometimes see boxes, for example, slurring their words and such. And that's also within the same family and category of cte. Yeah, but as you say, it's not something, you know, when you're alive and they have to post hummusly look at your brain and check if you have it. And what did the neurologist say? That it was a little bit abnormal.

Dustin Poirier

I have a Scarring and stuff. I'd have to pull out my phone and find the exact terminology for the parts of the brain. I don't know. I have a. Thinning in the back of my brain at whatever part, and I have a. You have a septum in your brain, like your nose? Yeah, and my septum is. Is splitting. Separated a good bit. And the neurologist thinks my left and right side aren't communicating as smoothly as they should because of the separation.

Matt D'Avella

And they suspect that that's to do with head trauma.

Dustin Poirier

I mean, we don't. We don't know.

Matt D'Avella

Do you feel different? I know it's a strange question to ask, but have you noticed any difference in. In yourself other than, you know, the differences one would experience when they left a job that was that significant? No.

Dustin Poirier

Besides, like, ups and downs with mood and stuff like that, that's one of the things I kind of notice. And being honest, like, spontaneous decisions. I noticed, like, if I'm like, fuck it, I'll just put $5,000 on this bet right now. Like, just. I wouldn't. I normally do that. I. I feel like. But maybe it's just who I am now. I don't know. Or saying it. I'm gonna get drunk as I can right now in the airport. Just, you know, I feel like that is, like, spontaneous decision making that I wouldn't normally do, I think, but maybe I would. I don't know if we're talking about brain trauma and, like, decisions I made or ways I feel. I'm sure I can draw links to all kinds of stuff. You know, I don't even know if it would make sense or would be correct. You know, when you're scrambling for answers, it's easy to, like, draw lines and say, well, this is because of that. This is because of that. You know, I feel. I feel normal. Besides ups and down days and stuff like that, I feel. I feel normal.

Matt D'Avella

So is there any possibility that you ever return to the UFC if you had to plot it as a percentage?

Dustin Poirier

Five percent.

Matt D'Avella

And since you've retired, has that percentage gone up or down, do you think progressively down? I think down.

Dustin Poirier

Okay, down, I think, because I would have to reinstate, first of all, I'd have to get my wife on board. Then I'm gonna do another training camp and do this again. But I'd have to reinstate myself in the drug testing protocol, and I think I'd have to do, like, six months of clean drug testing before I'm eligible to compete again. So that would be another six months you know, it's just a lot of hoops to jump. Jump through.

Matt D'Avella

And your father. Difficult. Difficult. Extremely difficult. Layers of emotion. It's funny, you know, we've all got people in our. Well, a lot of people have people in their lives where they've watched them struggle with addiction. They've tried to help them. They can't make sense of why they won't accept the help, why they won't change. They know they're doing like I've had. It's such a familiar story.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, man.

Matt D'Avella

What's the latest with him?

Dustin Poirier

He was. Latest with him is two days ago he was sleeping in his truck behind a business.

Matt D'Avella

And how'd you find this out? Oh, you have a dude.

Dustin Poirier

When I got. This is Father's Day week. This is a. My sister sent me this. Somebody who she knows. He was parked. My dad was parked at the. At the park. Somebody snapped a picture of him getting out of his car.

Matt D'Avella

He's. He. So he's got his top off. Oh, gosh.

Dustin Poirier

No shoes.

Matt D'Avella

No shoes.

Dustin Poirier

My sister actually gave him that truck that he's living in.

Matt D'Avella

God.

Dustin Poirier

And we're still working. We're still working to. To get something. Get him to do something or admit himself. Do. Just to help himself, you know?

Matt D'Avella

Sorry. I'm so sorry.

Dustin Poirier

I mean, that's life. But to see your father like that, you know, it's just like, damn, man.

Matt D'Avella

Is it alcohol? Yeah, it's alcohol, yeah. Does he. Does he do other types of drugs?

Dustin Poirier

Never smoked a cigarette in his life. Never smoked marijuana. Doesn't take pills, like just alcohol. We're trying. Me and my sister are trying to. His other. His other kids don't want anything to do with him, but me and my sister are trying to get him right. And my wife's super on board like trying everything too. But if he doesn't want to help himself, we can only do so much, you know? But like I said at the beginning, that's not my weight to carry, you know, I'm trying my best. I'm a father now too. I gotta look out for me and mine. I can't babysit my father.

Matt D'Avella

You know, it's. It can often drag people down themselves if they try and save someone from themselves.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, dude, I almost lost my mind on Father's Day. I'm the guy you're talking about.

Matt D'Avella

Yeah, I know it. Cause I've got a sort of personal story in this regard where I had to sit with one of my close relatives and I could see that they were destroying themselves trying to save Someone else. And they are the only person in this family that I'm talking about that have made that decision to try and save this person. And they are paying the price. They are sick. They are upset all the time. They're like. They've got constant despair. Whereas all the other siblings in that family have thought, fuck it. And it would appear that they're living more peaceful lives because they've said fuck it. But because of this person's heart, they are unable to just cut it off and let this person go.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

Is there part of you that's worried that someday you're gonna get a call and it's gonna say, I've been waiting.

Dustin Poirier

For months. Every day I've been waiting. I know I've. Me and my wife talk about this all the time. Like, every time I get a call about my dad from my sister or something, I'm, like, just waiting for the. You know, waiting for the news. He's not in good health, and he's 74, 75 years old. Like, no telling if he's eating. And I don't know. You know, every call I was like, this is the one.

Matt D'Avella

What did your mom think about this, about your father?

Dustin Poirier

I mean, as of most recently, she didn't know. She didn't even know that he was homeless. I told her recently after all this stuff happened, you know, I explained to her that he's. She's just sorry that I have to deal with this.

Matt D'Avella

And, you know, she got remarried and then. Yeah.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

So what's next?

Dustin Poirier

Vacation with my family.

Matt D'Avella

Vacation. Where you off to?

Dustin Poirier

Right here in Florida. 30 a going vacation with my family. Sit in the sun with my kids and family. Just have a good time, man. Stay off the Internet. Continue to work on myself. Have good mornings. That's it.

Matt D'Avella

Well, you know, I know you're not looking at the Internet, but I just wanted to let you know that the Internet's been really kind of. There's a lot of really, really cool.

Dustin Poirier

I don't hear that too often, so.

Matt D'Avella

You don't hear that too often. Thank you.

Dustin Poirier

Good to hear.

Matt D'Avella

That's actually why I wanted to do this interview as well, is in part, I just wanted to tell you that, but also I just wanted. I hoped we could be a bit of a platform for people understanding the complicated nature of mental health and purpose and addiction and alcohol and all these things that through doing this show, I've been able to sort of piece together myself. I've probably interviewed 700 people now. You don't find many new things. One of the most crazy things I've learned from doing this show is like, oh, fuck, we're all the same. We all struggle with the same things at the most fundamental level, you know? So for sure, you know, and we're all excited to see what it is you put your. Your great talent and your mentality and your obsession to. In the next season of your career, because whatever it is, you know, thank you, man. It's going to be incredible.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah. I just got to find it and continue doing it and continue working on myself and.

Matt D'Avella

And please be patient with yourself.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah, man. Patience is a virtue I wasn't blessed with, I don't think, but I'm working on it. I'm working on it every day. Every single day, ma'.

Matt D'Avella

Am. We have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question to the next, not knowing who they're leaving it for. And the question left for you is, dear next guest, what are you doing to improve the world?

Dustin Poirier

Trying to leave it better than I found it better, leave it a better place than I came into with everything I can. You know, For the most part, making the right decisions and showing that people do care, trying to be a good, you know, a person who cares about people and stuff like that. That's what hurts me too, man, is me doing that. I wasn't. I wasn't myself, you know, I know it's easy for me to say and try to hide behind, like, a drunkenness or mental breakdown and all. I feel like all those are excuses, like. But that's. People who know me know. That's. That's not how I roll, man. I just feel bad about it because that's my. My intentions are always 99.9 of the time Good. You know, and to hear about the video and everything I did and, you know, I just hurt myself, man. Really let myself down. Hard to look in the mirror at times, but I'm gonna continue. Continue doing what I was doing before this happened, you know, Leave the world a better place than I found it, man, and teach my kids to do the same.

Matt D'Avella

And in 2018, you did start the Good Fight Foundation.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

You and your wife, after clearing out your old fight gear and auctioning it off to support Lafayette families, you started this foundation, and you've actively been involved in the charity. I went on the website and saw you driving delivery trucks and packing school supplies in the kitchen. But also I saw the work that you'd done in Uganda, providing kids in Uganda with multiple new water wells as well. And you were, at 30 years old awarded the first ever Forest Griffin Community Award. The award presented annually by the UFC to recognize an athlete's exceptional volunteering and charity work. And you didn't have to do that, you know, especially at such a young age, at sort of 28 years old when you. When this all began. And if people do want to go and check out the foundation, I'm going to link it below. It's called the Good Fight foundation. And I looked at the mission statement on the website, etcetera, and it's exactly what this question asks. It's how can you do good for other people in the world that need it? Right?

Dustin Poirier

And I truly, honestly, 100% believe I'm doing it. You know, I think I'm using the platform I built through hard work to benefit as many people as I can. You know, fighting was going to benefit me and my family every time I walked to the ring. So why couldn't I. My mindset was, why couldn't I stack more on my back and go in with a cause and sell everything I wore that night and benefit a family or benefit a person or another organization? I was like, let me stack up as much on my back as I can and keep this momentum going with the foundation. But when we first started it, it wasn't. I didn't auction off everything I wore to the Octagon and we didn't link it to goals. It was just kind of random. We were packing up my house, moving from South Florida back to Louisiana, and we had all this stuff and we just saw a news article that a police officer got killed a couple streets where me and my wife went to school, a couple streets away from where we went to school, and he left behind a wife and kids, Officer Middlebrook here in Lafayette, Louisiana. And we're like, well, we're packing up the house. What about all these gloves and fight shorts that you fought in on these big fights? Can we sell. Maybe we can sell it and donate to his family. And that's what sparked the whole foundation starting. We did it for maybe a year, two. A year and a half, two years just out of my name before we made it an actual nonprofit. We were just ebaying fight worn stuff and donating it to the food pantry, donating it to this fallen officer's family. And then it turned into, let's keep this going and see if other fighters would get behind this and give it a name. So it's not Dustin Poirier does this, it's the Good Fight Foundation. So more people maybe get behind it and it just kind of organically happened on something I'm very proud of. I mean, in a couple of weeks, we have the backpack back to school drive. We do. We do probably 1300 backpacks filled with every school supply on the school supply list for Louisiana.

Matt D'Avella

Wow.

Dustin Poirier

Yeah.

Matt D'Avella

It's incredible.

Dustin Poirier

It takes. It takes everybody to make these goals happen, man. Not just the monetary side, but the going in this warehouse and packing every single backpack. Because we stretched the dollar with this foundation. You know, we don't have any. Paid any. Everything is. And we try to keep it as minimal as. As possible to keep everything affordable. So we buy bulk backpacks, break all the pallets down to backpacks, bulk flashcards, everything that goes in the backpack. For the school year, we buy bulk and have to pack every backpack ourselves.

Matt D'Avella

Wow.

Dustin Poirier

And it's something that I really enjoy doing, and I'm happy I have a platform to. To do it and raise awareness. And, you know, no kid should go to school without a. That's just one of the things we. We've done annually. But no kid should go to the school without the proper school supplies they need. You know, it's crazy. So just small stuff like that, you know, we're just trying to make a difference.

Matt D'Avella

Well, if anyone wants to donate, you can go to the Good Fight Foundation. I'll link it below. And they're doing incredible work. So it's a wonderful thing, wonderful cause, and as you say, you run it in a very lean way so that you can optimize for doing more and more good. Dustin, thank you so much.

Dustin Poirier

Thank you, ma'.

Matt D'Avella

Am. Thank you so much for being such a class act. And thank you for agreeing to have me interview you today. It's a real honor. You're a legend in my eyes for so many reasons, not just because of the man that you are, but because you've climbed impossible mountains. And also the way that you conduct yourself after fighting, which is a real. It's really, like, inspiring to me. The values, the integrity, the orientation towards family, towards doing good and actually to being openly human.

Dustin Poirier

Definitely, definitely am that. You know, it's my first time living life, man.

Matt D'Avella

The good, the bad, and the human. And you're willing to be so honest and open about that. And it. There's lots and lots and lots. I know this sounds like a crazy thing to say, but that airport incident is gonna help a lot of people in a lot of ways that I don't think you'll ever get to see indirectly because of what I think is going to come from it.

Dustin Poirier

Thank you, man. So I hope you're. Hope you're right, and I'm an open book. I'll talk about it and talk about my struggles, and I hope it does help somebody.

Matt D'Avella

Thank you.

Dustin Poirier

Thank you.

Matt D'Avella

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