Dustin Poirier Beats Benoît Saint Denis via 2nd-round Knockout at UFC 299

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Don’t write off Dustin Poirier just yet. The 35-year-old may have lost two of his last three fights but he got back in the win column with a big second-round knockout win over Benoît Saint Denis in the co-main event of UFC 299.

Saint Denis established early in the fight that he would be the aggressor. He was walking Poirier down from the opening bell. The Diamond responded with a few attempts at guillotine chokes but couldn’t quite get any locked in.

Poirier’s corner was not a fan of all the guillotine attempts:

Poirier did go for one more after tagging Saint Denis with a punch early in the second round. However, The Diamond didn’t need to go for a choke attempt when he launched a perfect counter left hand that put his opponent on skates.

Instead of going for the submission he finished the job with punches and reminded everyone he’s still a top lightweight.

Poirier had his work cut out for him on paper. With losses to Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje sandwiched between a win over Michael Chandler, the veteran was starting to fall out of the picture at the top of the lightweight division.

Saint Denis was the up-and-comer looking to add a brand name to his growing list of victims.

Instead, Poirier will reignite his viability at the top of the division. This stretch of the year has several big lightweight fights coming up. Justin Gaethje and Max Holloway will get the limelight against one another at UFC 300 while Arman Tsarukyan and Charles Oliveira will also meet on the landmark card.

Poirier’s win should keep him in the running to land one more title shot before he calls it quits, although he might have to get one more win to get there.

Current champion Islam Makhachev already laid out a three-fight plan for his title defenses. He’d like to defend his belt against Justin Gaethje in June, take on the winner of a scheduled bout between Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan in November before taking on an undecided challenger in February 2025.

The best-laid plans often go awry in MMA, but that just shows how much of a logjam there constantly is at the top of the lightweight division.

“I’m not done yet,” Poirier said, per Thomas Gerbasi of UFC.com. “This particular fight is righting the ship, putting things back in momentum. I’ve never lost two in a row, so I have to fight this fight and get my hand raised, just to show everybody that I’m still here, especially with this guy I’m fighting.”

With a win over one of the hottest prospects in the division Poirier isn’t going anywhere just yet.