Poirier: I’d be “broke and brain dead” if I listened to fan’s advice

Dustin Poirier caught criticism from fans recently when he declined to fight Norman Parke on short notice after Joseph Duffy withdrew from their ‘UFC Fight Night: Dublin’ main event bout.

Despite many fans saying that by declining the fight he essentially allowed the card to suffer a massive blow, Poirier stated that the UFC isn’t a tough-man competition.

On Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, Poirier explained to Ariel Helwani that if he fought the way fans want him to, he’d be broke and brain dead.

“If I would have thought like fans think, I’d be broke and brain dead and fighting everybody every weekend. Hey, I’m a prizefighter and the prize wasn’t right. So we came back home and we’ll see what happens next. It’s that simple. I was there to hold up my end of the bargain. Norman Parke was there trying to save his career.”

While Poirier doesn’t care about criticism from fans, he wasn’t too thrilled to find out that his fellow UFC fighters were criticizing him for not accepting a fight with a fill-in opponent.

“It does piss me off. They see an opportunity to get their name on a headline or something. They’re just trying to jump on an opportunity. And I understand that. But it’s kind of ridiculous on my end.”

According to Poirier, the UFC wasn’t pressuring him to accept the fight with Parke at all.

“[White] said, ‘Hey kid, we’re gonna try to reschedule this fight. If you really think you want to fight, if you think you have to fight, we have a fight for you. If not, don’t feel like the show is riding on your shoulders.'”

“If Dana and Joe were telling me, ‘Hey, we really need you here on this card, do us a solid and stay on the card,’ I probably would have done it. But that wasn’t the vibe I was getting. It was, ‘We’ll reschedule this thing, sh*t happens.’ That’s the vibe I was getting.”

What are your thoughts on Poirier not accepting the fight with Parke as a replacement opponent? Let us know below!