JRE 176 · March 17, 2026

Dustin Poirier

mmasportshistoryhealthbusiness

Who is Dustin Poirier?

Joe sits down with Dustin Poirier, a mixed martial artist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.

Topics and Timestamps

01Dustin Poirier discusses how weight cutting in MMA is dangerous and extreme, with fighters cutting 40-50 pounds before fights despite California implementing percentage-based limits
02Joe and Dustin debate UFC weight classes, agreeing more divisions are needed and that heavyweight should potentially be unlimited to prevent dangerous cuts
03Deep dive into MMA history covering pioneers like Fedor, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn era fighters, and how current fighters don't respect the history of the sport
04Discussion of fighter pay compared to other major sports leagues, with Dustin defending the reality that UFC contracts are binding but acknowledging disparities
05Analysis of how steroids and TRT shaped MMA especially in Pride, K1, and early UFC, with specific examples of Alistar Overeem, Brock Lesnar, and others
06Dustin talks about training at American Top Team, dealing with overly aggressive sparring partners, and how MMA gyms have evolved since the early 2000s
▶Dustin explains how weight cutting has been ingrained in his life for 20 years and his daughter now checks nutrition labels0:01:30
▶Discussion of extreme weight cuts and how California implemented percentage-based limits to prevent dangerous dehydration0:05:00
▶Joe and Dustin agree that UFC needs more weight classes to eliminate extreme cutting practices0:08:30
▶Deep dive into MMA pioneers including Fedor, Eve Edwards, Josh Thompson and how modern fighters don't know the history0:15:00
▶Extended discussion of steroids in Pride and TRT era, with Alistar Overeem as the best example of what TRT did for performance0:45:00

The Show

Dustin Poirier comes on JRE and immediately talks about how good it feels to eat without counting calories now that he's retired from fighting. He's sitting around 190 pounds, which is heavy for a lightweight, and it's wild to see him not obsessing over macros for the first time in 20 years. His daughter has even absorbed this behavior and checks ingredient labels at Whole Foods, which Joe finds hilarious.

The conversation quickly pivots to weight cutting, which is obviously Dustin's biggest pet peeve about fighting. He and Joe are completely aligned that the extreme weight cuts are insane and dangerous. They talk about how fighters cut 40 to 50 pounds in the final days before weighting in, then fight 24 hours later in one of the most dangerous sports on the planet. Dustin's experienced this countless times and has had moments where he thought he might pass out just standing up too quickly. Joe brings up Pereira cutting 25 plus pounds to fight at 185, showing up to the octagon at 225 pounds. That's psychotic.

They discuss how California instituted percentage-based weight cut limits around 15 to 20 percent of body weight, which seems like the move. More weight classes would solve this completely though. The UFC could do what boxing does with way more divisions. Joe and Dustin both agree on this, but also acknowledge that more weight classes means more confusion with title situations. Still, it's better than having someone cut 40 pounds and nearly die doing it.

The conversation drifts into a surprisingly deep MMA history lesson. They talk about Fedor, who never fought in the UFC despite being arguably the greatest heavyweight ever, because his management wanted a percentage of the promotion on top of their purse. The UFC wasn't having it. They get into how Pride was the juiciest organization ever, with contracts literally stating they don't test for steroids. Enson Inoue told Joe this directly. It was basically a green light to get as jacked as possible.

Dustin and Joe go back and forth on legendary fighters who don't get enough credit: Eve Edwards, Josh Thompson, Gilbert Melendez, Diego Sanchez, and Rich Franklin come up. They lament how younger fighters don't know these guys and don't respect the history. The conversation about heavyweight champions is hilarious because they show clips and go through the evolution. They talk about how Tim Sylvia was uncoordinated but always down to fight, and how his knees were pigeon toed in this weird way that supposedly could be corrected with proper training.

The TRT era gets thoroughly dissected. Joe and Dustin talk about how basically everyone was juicing back then, but it was only an intelligence test if you could pass the fight night drug tests. Alistar Overeem comes up multiple times as the best TRT argument ever. Dude went from a jacked light heavyweight to looking like a superhero. Joe brings up that Overeem was also a K1 Grand Prix champion, Abu Dhabi grappling trials winner, and had guillotine submissions in MMA. That's a level of skill that transcends one sport.

They get into how steroids probably made fighters more durable, not just bigger. When Bigfoot Silva was on TRT, he was incredibly durable. When he got off, he started getting knocked out. Same thing happened with Chris Weidman eventually. Brock Lesnar and Mark Hunt's fight gets brought up as possibly the juiciest matchup ever, with Mark Hunt now trying to sue over it. The consensus is that testing back then was a joke because it was only done on fight night, which is basically asking guys to have good chemists in their corner.

Best Quotes

“It feels good to eat and not count carbohydrates and calories. For the last 20 years I've been macro counting.”

— Dustin Poirier