Earlier this week Dustin Poirier admitted that he feels like his time fighting is nearing an end, ahead of his UFC 299 co-main event with Benoit Saint-Denis.
Former two-time lightweight title challenger, Dustin Poirier, is heading into his UFC 299 co-main event fight, off the back of a knockout loss. Something he’s only had to do twice before.
With the 35-year-old only days away from competing in his 30th UFC fight, which will be his 12th five-round scheduled fight, he admitted in an interview with ESPN that he ‘knows’ his fight career is coming to an ‘end’.
His UFC 299 opponent on the other hand, Benoit Saint-Denis, is just six fights into his UFC tenure and only had his first professional MMA fight four years ago.
In his last outing at UFC 295, he scored a devastating knockout over Matt Frevola after a vicious head kick in the first round.
Benoit Saint-Denis comments on the ‘last fight’ rumors
At the UFC 299 media day, the 28-year-old gave his response to the ‘last fight’ rumors, saying he’d be ‘honored’ to be the last one to share the cage with him as he knows it’ll be a ‘bloody battle’.
“I will be very honored to be his last fight but it’s his decision and I don’t know which shape he is in but we will find out on Saturday night. He’s a great fighter and I’m very happy to face him on Saturday and I know it’s going to be a bloody battle.”
Although ‘God Of War’ has already emerged as a big star in the sport, it comes at a time when there isn’t a lot of history of MMA in France. Saint-Denis spoke about why he feels this fight with Dustin will be important in being a part of history in French MMA.
“French MMA is getting huge, there’s a lot of excitement around MMA in France and globally so I’m very happy to be here at this period of time and to showcase my skills.
“There is not one face (of French MMA), there’s a couple of faces. It would be very poor in terms of skills and density if there was only one face. Being part of French history, French MMA is of course something I’m enjoying, (this fight) is important for the storytelling of our country and history with MMA.”
If Saint-Denis can score the biggest win of his career thus far at UFC 299, his next fight will likely be for the UFC lightweight title, which would be another huge milestone for French MMA.