Usually, if a fighter misses the weight limit, it is a disappointment to himself, his team, the promoter, and above all things: his opponent. It was a whole different story for Dustin Poirier last Saturday at UFC Fight Night: Henderson vs. Boetsch. When his opponent Yancy Medeiros stepped on the scale on Friday 3.5 pounds overweight, he already knew what was coming. Because Medeiros took a very unusual course for a fighter as Poirier explained at the post-fight press conference.
“He came up to my room a couple hours before weigh-ins, him and his camp, and knocked on the door and were like, ‘We’re not going to make it. The last thing I want to do is disrespect you. Thanks for taking the fight,'” Poirier told MMAjunkie. “I respect that. He came up personally and talked to me like a man. So it wasn’t a surprise when we stepped on the scale. I knew he was going to miss; I thought he was going to be heavier, actually.”
Medeiros, who fights in the 155-pound lightweight division, had to give up 20 percent of his purse to Poirier as punishment for missing weight, which might have improved Poirier’s mood even further. This, and the fact that he beat Medeiros via first-round TKO in front of a home crowd in Lousiana, and earning an additional $50,000 as bonus for delivering the Performance of the Night.
“It’s all good,” he said. “I train with big guys, and I cut a bit of weight for 155, still, so he didn’t feel too big in there.”
This was Poirier’s second fight and win since returning to lightweight after Conor McGregor knocked him out last September.