Mike Brown thinks big things should be in Dustin Poirier’s horizon.
The former WEC featherweight champion and current American Top Team coach wants to see Poirier get the next shot at the UFC lightweight belt or otherwise be involved in a marquee fight. Of course, Poirier is coming off an impressive win in a “Fight of the Year” contender bout against Dan Hooker in the headlining act of UFC on ESPN 12.
Brown feels Poirier has proven to be a draw and one of the most exciting fighters in the company.
“I don’t know how many main events in a row, but it’s quite a lot,” Brown told MMA Junkie. “I feel like he’s carrying a lot of these shows. He’s a guy everybody wants to see, of course he’s my friend, but as a fan, there’s only a few guys like him out there. Every fight delivers, every fight is ‘Fight of the Year’ candidate, and if it’s not that, that’s because somebody got put away really fast. If it goes any distance, it’s going to be wild.”
Poirier is 6-1 in his last seven performances, with his lone defeat coming to undefeated champ Khabib Nurmagomedov. In this most recent stretch, Poirier has headlined six of those seven UFC events and earned six postfight awards – five ‘Fight of the Night’ bonuses and one ‘Performance of the Night.’
Brown sees Poirier as an important asset to the UFC, and despite Poirier not being champion, the ATT coach would like to see “The Diamond” get paid like many non-UFC champion stars.
“At the end of the day, if it’s about pulling weight, if you’re a draw, if you’re the guy people are paying to see, then you deserve the money,” Brown explained. “Obviously he’s a draw. He’s a guy people want to see. He’s a guy that puts on a show. He’s a guy that delivers every time. Every time is wild chaos. It’s ‘Fight of the Year,’ it’s ‘Fight of the Night,’ somebody is getting messed up. He delivers every time.”
After the grueling contest with Hooker, Brown would like to see Poirier give his body a proper rest and see how the lightweight division shakes out in the coming months as there’s a pending title unification bout with champ Nurmagomedov and interim title holder Justin Gaethje.
Depending on how the 155-pound weight class unfolds, Brown wants to see Poirier get a shot at the title of a marquee fight.
“I don’t think there’s a rush,” Brown said. “Let’s look at the landscape, let’s see what’s next. In a perfect world, for me a title fight, but maybe there’s a big exciting fight out there.
“I know for him it’s about something that gets him excited. It needs to be something that gets him excited, something that motivates him, something that puts him in the gym and gets his fire going and makes him push himself to the max. That’s what he wants, especially when you’ve had so many high-level UFC fights. It takes a while to get that fire going. I mean, they’re out there but it’s not just about taking any fight. He’s been at it for so long, it needs to mean something to him. We’ll see what they come up with.”
Coach Mike Brown wants Dustin Poirier to get title shot or marquee fight: 'He's a draw'