Dustin Poirier Determined to Earn Rematch with Khabib Nurmagomedov

It's a long way from Abu Dhabi to South Florida.

Dustin Poirier made that arduous trip in September, 2019, his body broken and his dreams of becoming the UFC lightweight champion dashed. By the time he made it back to the Sunshine State, all he wanted to do was strap on his gloves and get back to training at American Top Team. It was the surest way he knew to distance himself from his third-round submission loss to the reigning lightweight champ, Khabib Nurmagomedov.

The universe had other plans.

Not long after arriving home from Abu Dhabi, Poirier went under the knife to repair a hip injury that had been troubling him. The surgery left him glued to the couch, with no choice but to confront his failed bid at UFC gold directly.

"That was the first surgery I'd ever had where I was just sidelined," Poirier told Bleacher Report from Las Vegas, looking back on the weeks after his loss to Nurmagomedov. "I couldn't put any weight on my leg for eight weeks. When I've lost, I've rebounded by just working and not thinking about it and just getting better. This time I couldn't, and it was the biggest loss of my career."

It wasn't an easy stretch for Poirier, but it resulted in some important mental growth.

The first step was accepting his mistakes in the fight, particularly a technical error he made when he had Nurmagomedov tied up in guillotine choke—arguably the closest the unbeaten champion has ever been to being finished.

"I did a couple of things I shouldn't have done," Poirier said, looking back on his loss to the champion. "Hindsight is 20/20, always. If I could go back, I would change a few things. I would have stuck to the game plan a little better. I should have gone full-guard with that guillotine so he couldn't have rolled out. But that's life."

As he recovered from surgery, Poirier also meditated on the place fighting holds in his life. In the emotional hours immediately following his loss to Nurmagomedov, he alluded to a potential retirement from the sport. While he ultimately walked those comments back, there was still a lot to think about.

"I got to really put things in perspective, to sit back and look at the big picture," he said. "It really just let me think about life.

"[I learned] something that I already knew," Poirier added. "It's just that fighting is part of who I am, it's not exactly who I am. It's just just something I do. It's just part of my life. A huge part of it. A huge part of my family's life. It's just something I'm lucky enough to be great at and something that I love.”

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Having healed up from his surgery and given some thought to his life as a fighter, Poirier is now ready to get back on the horse. This Saturday, in the main event of UFC on ESPN 12 at the UFC APEX facility in Las Vegas, he'll take on New Zealand's Dan Hooker in a crucial clash of lightweight contenders.

Poirier will enter the fight as the betting favorite, per Caesars Palace, but he views Hooker as a stern test.

"I respect every opponent; anybody who's going to stand across from me in the Octagon and try to knock me out, try to submit me, try to defeat me in any way, I have to respect them because they're dangerous," Poirier said, sizing up his foe.

"Whether they're ranked or not ranked, whether you've heard of them or not, these guys are dangerous, and I go about it like that. I don't want to look past anyone. I know that this is the biggest fight of [Hooker's] life. He's preparing the best he can to have his best performance and really finally become a big name. I know that there's a target on my back, and I know all these guys are at their best when they face me. So that motivates me." 

If Poirier is able to topple Hooker in Sin City, he'll take a big step in the direction of his ultimate goal: capturing the UFC lightweight belt.  

The next lightweight title fight on the agenda is expected to pit Nurmagomedov against interim lightweight champion Justin Gaethje, though the fight has not yet been made official. Poirier defeated Gaethje by knockout back in 2018 and believes he can do so again, although he concedes it won't be easy. As for Nurmagomedov? He learned a lot the first time he shared the cage with the undefeated champ, and he believes he can parlay those lessons into a victory the second time around. 

"He's just another human being," Poirier said of Nurmagomedov, who has never been involved in a rematch in his 28-fight career. "A lot of times, in your head, you build these guys up, then you get in there and you realize they're just another fighter, just like the last 40 you fought."

In order to earn another shot at gold, of course, Poirier will have to get by Hooker. He's reluctant to make a specific prediction for something as unforeseeable as the outcome of a fight, but he is confident he'll leave Las Vegas victorious. And after his loss to Nurmagomedov and his lengthy hiatus, doing so is going to feel pretty damn good.

"I just see me leaving Las Vegas on Sunday, with my wife, victorious," Poirier said. "It's been a long time since I've had my hand raised. This was the longest layoff of my career, and I just can't wait to feel that feeling of victory.

"It's going to feel great," he added. "It's gonna be really important to me, not only for my career but for myself, because I've overcome a lot of stuff with the loss to Khabib, then the surgery, then the road back to being healthy and getting back into training camp. I just want to prove my resilience."