UFC FIGHT NIGHT 94 (POIRIER VS JOHSON) – POIRIER: HE IS NOT ON MY LEVEL

A Louisiana native, now residing in Coconut Creek, Florida Dustin “The Diamond” Poirier (20-4) is looking for his 5th straight victory since his return to the lightweight division when he faces “TUF season 12 finalist, Michael “the Menace” Johnson (17-10-0) in the main event on UFC Fight Night 94 in Hidalgo, Texas at the State Farm Arena on Saturday, Sept. 17th.

Poirier has had an impressive career thus far, finishing 16 of his 20 pro wins, 12 of those victories have ended in the first round with 10 by knockout and six submissions. Since his loss to Conor Mcgregor, Poirier has had 4 straight wins, 3 by knockout but his most impressionable win was when he met Irish John Duffy on the undercard of UFC 195: Lawler vs. Condit at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas. A fight where he suffered a broken nose in round one and despite all of the blood and trouble breathing he was able to impress the judges by unanimous decision over Duffy in a three round battle.

“I knew he was a tough guy, he is a very skilled guy. A guy who is going to be around for a long time I feel. I won’t be surprised if in the future we did it again. He broke my nose in the first round, I couldn’t breathe out my nose anymore, and a lot of blood was going down into my mouth. The second and third round was pretty tough on me, on my cardio. Obviously, I wasn’t breathing well and I decided to wrestle a lot and keep the fight on the ground and try to grind him out. Tire him down but he is resilient as well, I hit him with some big shots and he stayed in the fight. A lot of these guys I would have finished there but that was an incredible fight. It was fun to be a part of and I think we both grew as fighters and competitors”.

Now Johnson who is ranked #10 is coming off two losses to Beneil Dariush and Nate Diaz. Despite all that, Johnson has some reputable wins over Joe Lauzon, Gleisan Tibau, Melvin Guillard, Edson Barboza and is the only guy to beat #3 ranked Tony Ferguson inside the Octagon. Poirier who is ranked #8 doesn’t think much of those numbers anyway.

“He’s on a two-fight losing streak but honestly, I feel like he won that fight against Beneil Dariush. I thought he got robbed of the decision and when he went into the Nate Diaz fight ranked number 5 or number 6 and now he is number 10. I feel like the numbers aren’t telling the story. He beat two of the best guys in the division, Edwin Barboza and Tony Ferguson. Both guys are like #3 or #4 in the division. He has some wins over the top guys in the division and like I said the numbers on paper don’t tell the whole story”.

Poirier believes his skill level and maturity, as a fighter will be too much for Johnson.

“I think he is tough, obviously anybody at this level is. He durable but that being said he is not on my level anywhere that the fight can go. Boxing, grappling, kickboxing, I feel like I am going to shine everywhere. Really outclass him and open people’s eyes again and say wow this kids for real. I am going to show my whole arsenal here”.

On paper, it would look like ATT (Poirier) vs Blackzillian (Johnson) rivalry but it’s not for Poirier who interest is to get a step closer to a title shot.

“For me, I don’t have anything against those guys. I don’t know, they never done anything with me but I know a lot of their fighters years ago were at American Top Team and then they split off and did they’re own thing. That’s how the whole bad blood got started but that was years before I joined the gym. This is just another guy, when he signed the contract he became an enemy. He doesn’t have to be on a rival team for me to whoop his ass. I am going in there to beat him regardless. It just makes it more fun I guess”.

In the co-main event of the Fox Sports 1 card, you have #9 middleweight contender and TUF season 17 finalist “Primetime” Uriah Hall (13-6) vs #10 Derek Brunson (15-3). The rest of the televised bouts features lightweights Evan Dunham (16-6) vs Abel “Killa” Trujillo (15-6), Bantamweights Alejandro “Diablito “Perez (18-6) vs Albert Morales, welterweights Roan “Jucao” Carneiro (20-10) vs Kenny Robertson (15-3) and lightweights Chris Wade (11-2) vs Islam Makhachev (12-1). Gabriel Benitez vs Sam Sicilia Augusto Montano vs Belal Muhammad.

Preliminary Card (FS1)