Dustin Poirier’s Mother Recalls When He Decided He Wanted to Be a Fighter

---

Dustin Poirier’s mother, Jere Chaisson, recently recalled the night he decided to be a professional fighter. 

Coming from a lineage of fighters, Poirier was a natural at his chosen craft. Chaisson recalls her son, at 5 years of age, roaming around on a bicycle with boxing gloves, looking for someone to box. Chaisson revealed that Poirier came home in the wee hours of the morning one day and told her that he had just knocked out four grown men. That’s when “The Diamond” was sure that he wanted to be a professional fighter.

“He was always a fighter,” Chaisson told the UFC. “He was five years old, riding around on a little bicycle with a pair of boxing gloves, looking for somebody to box with… He walks into the house one night, 3 o’clock in the morning, and he said, ‘I just knocked out four big hairy men, I think I wanna be one of those fighters.’”

Poirier Made a Strong Impression Early

One of Poirier’s early coaches, Harry Duhon, recalls noticing “killer instincts” in him right away. Another coach, Tim Credeur, revisited his first sparring session with Poirier in 2008. Credeur remembers spitting blood at the end of five rounds while thinking that Poirier could be a world champion one day.

While Poirier never won an undisputed UFC title, the former interim lightweight champ is the closest anyone has gotten to being considered an uncrowned king. Poirier has only lost against the best in the world, coming up short in three lightweight title bids. Louisiana’s own finally hung up his gloves after a unanimous decision loss against Max Holloway in front of his home crowd at UFC 318 on Saturday.