JRE MMA Show #102 with Dustin Poirier

1. 0:00 – 15:00

   (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast,…

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      (drumming music) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

   2. DPDustin Poirier0:04

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:06

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Dustin Poirier, what's up, brother?

   4. DPDustin Poirier0:15

      What's happening, man?

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:16

      Good to have you here, man.

   6. DPDustin Poirier0:17

      Good to finally be here.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:18

      What does it feel like right now? You're on the top of the world, son.

   8. DPDustin Poirier0:22

      Feels good. You know, e- everybody's asking me that, like... But I, I've been fighting for a while.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:27

      Right.

   10. DPDustin Poirier0:27

       So it's just... And it's another win. It's a big, a big one. You know, the guy's such a celebrity, but, uh, just another win.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:32

       Well, if you look at your last... The, like, there's a, I think it was an Instagram post or someone put up the, your last victories, all the guys that you've beaten. Like, dude, I mean, you talk about earning your way to the top. I mean, you went through a fucking who's who, a murderer's row of the 155-pound division. I mean, you, you earned it. I mean, you really did earn it.

   12. DPDustin Poirier0:55

       Paid in full.

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:55

       Yeah, 100%, man.

   14. DPDustin Poirier0:58

       Yeah. Yeah. Um, I'm trying to keep adding them, Joe.

   15. JRJoe Rogan1:01

       I know.

   16. DPDustin Poirier1:02

       Trying to keep adding them up there.

   17. JRJoe Rogan1:02

       I know you are.

   18. DPDustin Poirier1:03

       But yeah, I think it's five or six world champions that I beat in the UFC.

   19. JRJoe Rogan1:07

       Yeah.

   20. DPDustin Poirier1:07

       Yeah. Pettis, Gaethje, Eddie-

   21. JRJoe Rogan1:10

       Max.

   22. DPDustin Poirier1:10

       ... Max, Conor. Um-

   23. JRJoe Rogan1:12

       Yeah. Huge.

   24. DPDustin Poirier1:13

       I don't know if there's another one in there, but that's enough.

   25. JRJoe Rogan1:15

       Those are giant victories, man.

   26. DPDustin Poirier1:17

       Yeah, for sure.

   27. JRJoe Rogan1:17

       I mean, the, those... Giant, giant victories.

   28. DPDustin Poirier1:19

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:19

       And for a guy like you who's been at it for a long time, and like you, you just keep getting better. You just keep improving, you just keep adding on. And, and, and more important I think than, or not more important, or as important as any of those things is your composure. Like, your com- your composure now is at the, like the, the top of the heap.

   30. DPDustin Poirier1:38

       Yeah, I'm really comfortable in there. And, and I'm, I trust myself, you know. Even when shit's gonna get bad in there, you know, I, I, I just trust myself to find a way. And I think that comes, comes with fighting at the highest level for as long as I have.
2. 15:00 – 30:00

   So, it's- it's a…

   1. DPDustin Poirier15:00

      eight weeks, get as close as I can, and then the water cut is usually, like, 12, 10 pounds, at- at 55.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:06

      So, it's- it's a complex process, right?

   3. DPDustin Poirier15:08

      Yeah.

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:08

      Like, uh, who- who was the guy who figured that out? Was it a wrestler that came to MMA camps and figured it out? Like, who- who figured out how to do that?

   5. DPDustin Poirier15:17

      Uh, I have no clue. I wish they wouldn't have-

   6. JRJoe Rogan15:19

      (laughs)

   7. DPDustin Poirier15:19

      ... because I'd rather just fight at my walking around weight, you know?

   8. JRJoe Rogan15:22

      Yeah.

   9. DPDustin Poirier15:23

      But if I fight at 170, these guys are 200+ pounds, you know.

   10. JRJoe Rogan15:26

       Right, that- that is the problem. What do you- what do you weigh around right now?

   11. DPDustin Poirier15:29

       Close, probably 181, 176-ish, between there.

   12. JRJoe Rogan15:32

       You look so much bigger than you looked when you were at 145. Like, one of the things that we were talking about was, when you were fighting Conor, your fucking back looks huge. Your back... You're so much wider. You're just so much thicker.

   13. DPDustin Poirier15:45

       Yeah. Um, I'm- I'm built like that though.

   14. JRJoe Rogan15:48

       Yeah.

   15. DPDustin Poirier15:48

       I'm kinda built like, uh, SpongeBob a little bit.

   16. JRJoe Rogan15:50

       Well, that's where the punching power comes from, right?

   17. DPDustin Poirier15:52

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan15:52

       That width.

   19. DPDustin Poirier15:53

       Right, and- and- and a-

   20. JRJoe Rogan15:54

       You know, torque.

   21. DPDustin Poirier15:54

       ... you know, the- the- the reach, the- the length when I'm twisting my body-

   22. JRJoe Rogan15:58

       Mm-hmm.

   23. DPDustin Poirier15:58

       ... I feel like, you know... Guys feel like they're out of range, but I can still touch them.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:02

       Right, yeah.

   25. DPDustin Poirier16:02

       Yeah.

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:03

       Well, guys with long arms... Like, we were commentating on a- a fight recently, uh, it was Andre Ewell. Andre Ewell has these crazy long arms. He had, like, a seven-inch reach advantage over his opponent-

   27. DPDustin Poirier16:13

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:13

       ... they were the same height. And you look at him like, "Wh- that is nuts." Like...

   29. DPDustin Poirier16:18

       He- he's pretty tall for that weight class too, you know?

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:19

       Yeah.
3. 30:00 – 45:00

   Shh. …

   1. JRJoe Rogan30:01

      (laughs) He's a wild dude, man. And he, and he ... That's, he did-

   2. DPDustin Poirier30:08

      Shh.

   3. JRJoe Rogan30:08

      ... did the Sanchae. That was one KO. That was not the, uh ... Not it? No, he's got a- That's never one of his top 10. Oh, he's got a shitload of them, man. He's got a shitload of them.

   4. DPDustin Poirier30:18

      Bad kickers.

   5. JRJoe Rogan30:18

      He's a bad motherfucker, dude. And l- again, it's stuff like this. He's like, he's really creative.

   6. DPDustin Poirier30:23

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan30:26

      You gotta see him fight. But he's tiny, man. He fights at 125, 126. I mean, the, he just doesn't have the po- ... And he's, uh, is ... He's a kicker really, more than anything.

   8. DPDustin Poirier30:37

      Right. And the kicks will set up his hands probably.

   9. JRJoe Rogan30:39

      Yeah.

   10. DPDustin Poirier30:39

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan30:41

       But he's KOing these little tiny dudes with punches, but I mean, he's very small.

   12. DPDustin Poirier30:45

       Did he beat, uh, Horiguchi in MMA?

   13. JRJoe Rogan30:48

       I don't know. I don't know how many MMA fights he's had. I think he's only had a handful of MMA fights. I think most-

   14. DPDustin Poirier30:55

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan30:55

       ... of his fights have been striking. (laughs)

   16. DPDustin Poirier30:57

       I, I think he beat Kyoji.

   17. JRJoe Rogan30:59

       Yeah?

   18. DPDustin Poirier30:59

       I think so.

   19. JRJoe Rogan31:00

       And Horaguchi's also 125, right? He fights fly weight.

   20. DPDustin Poirier31:03

       Yeah. He's, he's fighting 35, I think, in ... Bouncing around. In Bellator when he ... He won the 35 belt. But he's m- m- m- He was 25.

   21. JRJoe Rogan31:10

       What do you think of ONE FC's decision to try to eliminate weight cutting?

   22. DPDustin Poirier31:15

       I love it 'cause I hate cutting weight.

   23. JRJoe Rogan31:17

       Yeah.

   24. DPDustin Poirier31:17

       I just don't ... H- how can it ... I don't know the, the protocol they have. I don't know how it can be really monitored and h- and safely done. I don't know what they're doing, but I would love if we didn't cut weight.

   25. JRJoe Rogan31:27

       Do you think there's, there's a way to do that? You'd have to ne-

   26. DPDustin Poirier31:31

       It w- it would have to be long-

   27. JRJoe Rogan31:33

       ... you'd have to follow the weight classes.

   28. DPDustin Poirier31:33

       It would have to be like a long ... During camp, somebody comes down, checks your weight every couple weeks-

   29. JRJoe Rogan31:39

       Yeah.

   30. DPDustin Poirier31:39

       ... every two weeks. How else you gonna ... And then maybe a hydration test. I know they do that in high school wrestling, right?
4. 45:00 – 1:00:00

   (clears throat) I don't know…

   1. JRJoe Rogan45:00

      'cause he had dehydrated and starved himself down to like a fucking skeleton to try to make 125.

   2. DPDustin Poirier45:06

      (clears throat) I don't know a whole lot about EPO, but it, it's a, it gives you energy as well?

   3. JRJoe Rogan45:10

      It, well, it raises your blood. It, it raises your blood count. So what it is, is it makes your body produce more red blood cells and, uh, which is similar, we were talking before, the sauna has a similar effect, but just not as potent.

   4. DPDustin Poirier45:23

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan45:24

      You know, but, um-

   6. DPDustin Poirier45:25

      But so with that, you get more oxygen and-

   7. JRJoe Rogan45:26

      Yeah.

   8. DPDustin Poirier45:27

      ... more, everything to the, nutrients to the muscles? Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan45:29

      Yeah, you get more endurance.

   10. DPDustin Poirier45:30

       Yeah.

   11. JRJoe Rogan45:31

       Famously, this is one of the things they use in cycling.

   12. DPDustin Poirier45:34

       Right.

   13. JRJoe Rogan45:34

       Yeah-

   14. DPDustin Poirier45:35

       Okay.

   15. JRJoe Rogan45:35

       ... because they need that endurance. But, you know, for a guy like TJ, I guess I, I, uh, read an interview recently where he's talking about it that he was anemic 'cause he had starved himself to try to make 125.

   16. DPDustin Poirier45:47

       Shh... He's big, man. You know, I've, I've been around him.

   17. JRJoe Rogan45:49

       Yeah.

   18. DPDustin Poirier45:50

       For 125, he's, he's-

   19. JRJoe Rogan45:51

       Well, he started, he was 145 in The Ultimate Fighter and then won the title at 135 and then tried to get down to 125 to fight Henry.

   20. DPDustin Poirier45:59

       Yeah.

   21. JRJoe Rogan45:59

       I mean, he made it. He did make it, but God, he looked like shit.

   22. DPDustin Poirier46:03

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan46:03

       He looked scary.

   24. DPDustin Poirier46:04

       To do that, you have to have a, a team and a chemist behind you to get your bo- I mean, that's just-

   25. JRJoe Rogan46:10

       Yeah.

   26. DPDustin Poirier46:10

       ... as extreme as it gets.

   27. JRJoe Rogan46:11

       Right. Yeah, and that's a perfect example of, phew, why not just fight at your weight class?

   28. DPDustin Poirier46:17

       Yeah.

   29. JRJoe Rogan46:18

       It's a bummer, man. It's a, like, like-

   30. DPDustin Poirier46:21

       I think before I'm done fighting, I'm gonna fight at 170.
5. 1:00:00 – 1:05:46

   So, were you concerned…

   1. DPDustin Poirier1:00:00

      allowing me to... Anytime my leg would, would go laterally, that edge would hit inside of the, inside of my hip and rip it up.

   2. JRJoe Rogan1:00:08

      So, were you concerned that this was kind of a career ender? Like, what was the doctor's prognosis when he saw how bad it was in there?

   3. DPDustin Poirier1:00:14

      He, he kind of gave me some confidence 'cause he told me the spacing in my hip, from my femur to my hip socket-

   4. JRJoe Rogan1:00:19

      Mm-hmm.

   5. DPDustin Poirier1:00:19

      ... the spacing is healthy. So that's what they usually... Like, hip replacements and stuff-

   6. JRJoe Rogan1:00:23

      Mm-hmm.

   7. DPDustin Poirier1:00:24

      ... if, if your spacing, you have no, no room in there, that's when they usually have to do something or it's a threat to your career.

   8. JRJoe Rogan1:00:29

      Mm-hmm.

   9. DPDustin Poirier1:00:29

      But my spacing is healthy. It was just the bone growth. My body pushed more, more bone on the outside of my femur and wouldn't allow me to, to-

   10. JRJoe Rogan1:00:36

       So it's basically an injury that you should have taken care of a while ago and you kind of let it go a little too long and it started getting weird.

   11. DPDustin Poirier1:00:43

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan1:00:43

       When did it first start fucking up?

   13. DPDustin Poirier1:00:45

       So I even... So it's been, it's been years. It's been bothering me for years. And then we did stem cells.

   14. JRJoe Rogan1:00:51

       Did that help at all?

   15. DPDustin Poirier1:00:53

       I thought it did. You know, I was, I was hoping, but it turned out I was still in, in a lot of pain, you know.

   16. JRJoe Rogan1:00:58

       Did it hurt, help in the beginning and then stopped helping?

   17. DPDustin Poirier1:01:01

       I thought I was, uh, less sore. Like, if I did run sprints, instead of taking a week and a half, I thought maybe, like, three or four days, I was good.

   18. JRJoe Rogan1:01:08

       Mm-hmm.

   19. DPDustin Poirier1:01:09

       So I noticed a little bit in that, but then it, it felt like it went back to exactly how it was before.

   20. JRJoe Rogan1:01:13

       Well, it sounds like the structure was just tearing up all the-

   21. DPDustin Poirier1:01:16

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan1:01:16

       ... inside of your-

   23. DPDustin Poirier1:01:16

       And, and... Exactly.

   24. JRJoe Rogan1:01:17

       ... your hip.

   25. DPDustin Poirier1:01:17

       Structurally, they had to re-round it and-

   26. JRJoe Rogan1:01:19

       But seems like it... Now, if you got stem cells, since they've re-rounded it and everything, maybe it would help heal up that area a little bit better.

   27. DPDustin Poirier1:01:25

       Yeah. We did PRP when they closed it up.... after surgery.

   28. JRJoe Rogan1:01:27

       Where did you get the stem cells done?

   29. DPDustin Poirier1:01:30

       I don't ... In LA, but I don't know-

   30. JRJoe Rogan1:01:32

       Oh, see-

Episode duration: 2:05:22