Rate a fighter: Dustin Poirier

GOATtalks said:
I feel like Dustin has been a bit overrated these last few years. In my opinion he’s a really good fighter, but definitely not great or exceptional.

He’s a big, not huge LW, with good power and good cardio. Good striking and decent BJJ, but with very average wrestling.

Most of his best wins have been wars and a majority of them could’ve went either way. He’s never been dominant or on a impressive win streak. He has a lot of loses and some aren’t even to the best fighters in the division.

TBH I wouldn’t bet on him to beat guys like Islam, Tsarukyan, Gamrot or Guram.

What are your thoughts on Dustin?
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You feel Dustin's been overrated the past few years eh?

GOATtalks said:
It’s hard to compare fighters who haven’t fought each other and don’t have common opponents. It goes something like this:

1. Dustin/ Charles/ Islam

4. Gaethje/ Chandler/ Conor/ RDA/ Dariush

9. Hooker/ Guram/ Gamrot/ Tsarukyan/ Fiziev/ Gillespie/ Ferreira/ Ridell

LW is a deep division. Tony shouldn’t be ranked to be honest. I don’t see him beating anyone in top20 really
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I guess that would be another bandwagon jumped right off...
 
GOATtalks said:
I feel like Dustin has been a bit overrated these last few years. In my opinion he’s a really good fighter, but definitely not great or exceptional.

He’s a big, not huge LW, with good power and good cardio. Good striking and decent BJJ, but with very average wrestling.

Most of his best wins have been wars and a majority of them could’ve went either way. He’s never been dominant or on a impressive win streak. He has a lot of loses and some aren’t even to the best fighters in the division.

TBH I wouldn’t bet on him to beat guys like Islam, Tsarukyan, Gamrot or Guram.

What are your thoughts on Dustin?
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If Dustin isn’t great, what’s Justin then?
 
Very good fighter and skilled everywhere. 8/10 would be my rating.

His grappling is very good, much better than you think, but I know for a fact he has major hip issues and needs hip replacement, he would have to retire to get it done, so its put off for now. Hard for him to grapple like he wants, but when he was fresh with no hip problems like when he submitted Holloway he was sharp in the grappling.
 
Grappling's average. Power's average. Technical striking abilities are very good. Cardio's above average. Chin's probably above average.

Dustin capitalizes on the fact that he doesn't have any gaping holes in his game, but he's also beatable. He probably got saved by the bell at the end of the 2nd round of the Hooker fight, and we'd be fools to ignore the size advantage he had over Holloway.

Overall I'd rate him up with the top guys, as the only guys who seem capable of beating this version of him are the elite. With that being said, I don't think he belongs in the P4P rankings.
 
Whenever gets a late career resurgence the typical reasons are PEDS or wins over fighters not at the apex level. Dustin might be doing pretty good right now. He is at rhat, and has been at the stage of bring one loss away from losing momentum for a little bit now.

Doing well, don't know if peds are there. Had some razor close wins and wins over Conor.

Not sure how to rate him.
 
While LW has always been ridiculously deep, there hasn't been much high-end talent at the very top. Guys like Dustin and Gaethje have been top 5 for a long time now, but they're relatively one-dimensional; and there one dimension (striking) isn't actually the best in the division. In fact, I'd favor one-dimensional strikers like Fiziev and Riddell over Dustin and Gaethje.
 
He's a damn good fighter. But since he lost his last fight, in typical Sherdog fashion he is wildly overrated and got "exposed".
 
7.5 - some great wins- loses to truly elite - like Oliviera and Khabib- but very good boxing - hard hitter- good cardio- good heart- and a very great career overall- seems like a good person as well-
 
Qays Stetkevich said:
100% completely this. All well said.
haha-captain.gif


He's also clearly grown up as a person too, so watching his whole career has indeed been a pleasure for the fans. Can't think of many situations where I'd be rooting against him.

In terms of raw skill/"level", I'd say he's an 8.5 or so. If he had wrestling to match his stand-up he'd be champ and near-unstoppable.
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It’s not only his wrestling, but Jiu Jitsu defense that costs him fights on the big stage. That, and pulling guard on Khabib so fight IQ could be a bit better.
 
Never champion
Too much soy in diet

Bellator-esque imo. Made a living off of sloppy brawling in a weak division (the division who couldnt take a round off Khabib)
 
lol Dustin is "not great", yet he put on exciting fights and beat up Hooker, Colon, Justin, Alvarez and Max?

Who is "great" then, in this context? Only Khabib?
 
He’s great for an American fighter, but just good overall. Not good enough to compete with the elite, but the “best of the rest”.
 
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