Steven Bartlett interviews UFC fighter Dustin Poirier about his airport arrest, retirement struggles, and mental health
Steven Bartlett interviews retired UFC fighter Dustin Poirier on The Diary of a CEO, recorded shortly after Poirier's public arrest at Atlanta's airport on Father's Day.
Summary
Arrested for public intoxication at Atlanta's airport on Father's Day, retired UFC lightweight Dustin Poirier sits down with The Diary of a CEO to explain what happened and why. Poirier opens up about the incident in detail — explaining that depression linked to his homeless father's alcoholism triggered a drinking spiral that led to a confrontation with airport staff and police. He connects the episode to a lifelong pattern rooted in a difficult childhood: a violent home, an alcoholic father, early arrests, and drinking from age 12. Poirier also speaks candidly about the psychological void left by retirement from fighting after two decades, describing the loss of purpose and identity as one of the hardest challenges he has faced. He announces he is quitting alcohol entirely and has returned to therapy.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and the Airport Incident
Steven Bartlett: Dustin Poirier. There's a question that we throw around in society — we say it quite flippantly to people we meet, friends, family, strangers. But in this context, I want to ask it in the most intentional way. Give me the long answer. How are you doing?
Dustin Poirier: As a whole? Great. Recently there's been some turbulence, but I'm doing well.
Steven Bartlett: There's been some turbulence. Give me some color on that.
Dustin Poirier: Last week — which is not new to me — I let my emotions get the best of me. I was in a bad spot mentally, started drinking, got arrested. Got into some trouble at the airport in Atlanta. Not proud of it, but it is what it is.
Early Life and Family Background
Steven Bartlett: I want to give some background context. I spent the last couple of days looking through your childhood and where you come from and who you are, to try and fill the picture of Dustin Poirier in my head. I've got lots of photos of you here as a young man. I think this is incredibly important context, because I'd watched you fight the best there is and beat the best there is in the UFC. But it wasn't until I understood your earliest context that I started to understand the picture of where you've come from, and also how that makes you who you are today. So take me back. What is the early context that people need to understand to really understand you as a man?
Dustin Poirier: I'm just a man trying his best, trying to provide for my family, learning as I go, not scared to work hard, not scared to chase dreams. Just a kid from Lafayette, Louisiana, who found something to put his all into and tried to become great at it — with fighting.
Steven Bartlett: Your father and your grandfather were fighters?
Dustin Poirier: My father boxed when he was younger. My grandfather was in the Navy and worked in the oil field. They weren't successful fighters — nobody knew who they were — but yeah, I come from fighters for sure.
Steven Bartlett: And from money? Do you come from money?
Dustin Poirier: No, definitely not.
Steven Bartlett: What was that like growing up?
Dustin Poirier: It was normal to me because I didn't know any different. It wasn't like I missed a meal or anything like that, but definitely wasn't rich or had money to do a whole lot of things when I was younger. A working-class family.
Steven Bartlett: And your parents divorced when you were younger?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. I lived with them up until about kindergarten or first grade, then they got divorced.
Steven Bartlett: Do you have any mental images of them being together when you were young? Any memories of them together?
Dustin Poirier: Honestly, not to turn it dark or anything, but the early memories I have of them together aren't the best. It's fighting and violence and stuff.
Steven Bartlett: Physical fighting?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: In that Instagram post you wrote recently after the incident at the airport, you mentioned your father and some of his struggles. He had his own struggles with alcohol.
Dustin Poirier: His whole life he has. Alcohol has ruined his life. And alcohol was present when you were a young man, when you were still there.
He's been an alcoholic my entire life.
Steven Bartlett: Did you have a relationship with him after the divorce?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, of course. Split custody or something — every other weekend I would go to his house and spend the weekend.
Steven Bartlett: How do you think that season of your life shaped the man you became? That early context — under the age of 10, the violent home, the divorce, your dad struggling with alcohol. How do you look back on that?
Dustin Poirier: As a grown man, I look back and think my father was an idiot for not being there with his kids. As a father myself, I think about that. I wake up with my kids in the house, they run up to me, I make them breakfast every day. I could never imagine living that type of life. So as an adult and a father looking back on it, I think he's made a lot of mistakes that I think he still lives with.
Steven Bartlett: And your mom — she seems to have been a real constant throughout your life.
Dustin Poirier: For sure. I'll be on vacation with her in a week. Her and my grandmother raised me. She was everything. Mothers are everything. And she still is — calling me, texting me every day, checking on me, asking how I am.
Steven Bartlett: And you've got two brothers?
Dustin Poirier: I have two brothers I grew up with. Two brothers and a sister I met when I was 25, 26 years old from my father.
School, Trouble, and Juvenile Detention
Steven Bartlett: I heard about what you were like in school. You struggled in school. It sounds like you got in a lot of fights when you were younger. I'm trying to figure out where that came from in you.
Dustin Poirier: Living in South Louisiana, we fought all the time. But I just kept doing it, just kept going with fighting as a young man.
Steven Bartlett: I read that you were expelled from school as well.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. Fighting. The one that got me expelled was a fight.
Steven Bartlett: And that seems to be a quite consistent pattern from 10 to 14 — struggling in school, fighting. And then at 14, you end up in a juvenile detention center.
Dustin Poirier: 14, yeah.
Steven Bartlett: What was the road there? What happened?
Dustin Poirier: I had got into some trouble at one of the times I was living with my father. I got into a fight and physically hurt somebody and got arrested. I was on probation at the time and I wasn't going to school — got picked up for truancy and some other things. Failed the drug test. I was on probation at the time, failed the drug test, and they sent me to juvenile detention.
Steven Bartlett: Were you drinking at that age?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: At 14. When did you start drinking?
Dustin Poirier: I was talking to my wife the other day thinking about that. I don't know — 12, 13 probably.
Steven Bartlett: It's quite curious to me that at 14, 15 you're getting in trouble for fighting, you end up in a detention center, you're drinking from 12 years old. It begs the question — what was going on in that young man's mind?
Dustin Poirier: I don't have an answer. Not having anywhere to put my focus — I wasn't trying to be the best at something. I was just living day to day, doing whatever. I didn't have any goals. I was a young kid. It's tough to look back to that young and really say what I was thinking at that age. I was just being a kid, I guess.
Steven Bartlett: Were you a happy kid?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: And when you talk about his life being ruined by alcohol — what do you mean by that?
Dustin Poirier: He's ruined his marriages, his relationships, his friendships, his relationships with his family, with his kids. He has two kids that don't speak to him at all and won't. He's been in jail plenty of times for alcohol-related stuff. If I could paint a picture of what you think of as a classic drunk or alcoholic — very selfish, and continues to go back to it. He's actually homeless right now.
Steven Bartlett: He's homeless right now?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. Part of me getting in trouble at the airport was — and it's not my weight to carry — but I try to help him out and he's back out on the street. It's like he almost doesn't want help. And I was on Father's Day, traveling to work, and I just couldn't stop thinking about my father. I started drinking in the airport and that's kind of what led to the incident.
When I feel like that, I've been going to therapy. Years ago I started going to therapy. And when I started feeling better, I stopped practicing everything I learned through therapy. Then I felt that feeling again. I guess call it depression. Just didn't feel well. And when I feel like that, I know I shouldn't drink. And I drank anyway. Alcohol has never benefited me, especially in times like that where I'm mentally not the best.
Depression and Mental Health
Steven Bartlett: You use the word depression there to give it a word. Can you paint a picture for me of what that actually feels like? That day you wake up, it's Father's Day, you don't feel good.
Dustin Poirier: No, I felt good in the morning. I spent the morning with my kids. My daughter wrote me a letter, gave me presents, did all the Father's Day stuff. I had a great morning. But then when I left my home to fly out, I started feeling it. And days leading up to that, it would come off and on — I would think about my father and it would bring me down, but it wasn't that bad. But on Father's Day, it just hit me hard.
I've had bouts with depression throughout my career. When it hits me, it hits me hard. That day, going to the airport, it just feels like everything has its own gravity and it's going to pull me towards the negative. No matter what it is, it's like a cloud in my head that I just can't get out from under. It's hard to explain unless you've been through it. That's what I try to tell my wife because she's always so happy. But when I feel like that — and it doesn't happen often — man, when it hits me, it's bad.
Steven Bartlett: Do you remember the first time you felt that?
Dustin Poirier: I don't. But my wife — me and my wife have been together a long time, since we were in middle school and high school, off and on — she tells me, "Don't you remember? I've always thought something was off. You never wanted to be around big crowds, go to all the parties with me when I was younger." Yeah, because I just didn't like to be around that many people. Maybe it was anxiety I was dealing with. I don't know. This stuff is all new to me. She thinks I've been having it for a long time, but I started noticing it more recently — in the last three, four years.
Steven Bartlett: Was there a catalyst? Something that happened that caused you to feel that?
Dustin Poirier: If I could link it to something, it was losing a big fight. My second fight with Justin Gaethje. Lost that one, came back home, everything was good, and then I was really emotional. Some days I would be fine, some days I would be sad, and I was like, "Something's off." So that's when I started going to therapy and trying to unpack some of the stuff I didn't even know I was walking around with.
Steven Bartlett: Did you learn anything through the process of therapy?
Dustin Poirier: I've been to therapy — still. The day I got back from Atlanta, I started going to therapy again after the airport incident. Right before I went to try to help my father, I went through a therapy session. I had kind of closed the door on therapy when I started feeling good again. But I'm starting to realize it's not something you just fix. It's something you have to work on always. Since the last week I've been waking up early, reading, writing, doing something hard in the morning — just trying to do everything that I was doing that made me feel better three years ago. I'm trying my best.
Steven Bartlett: Have you learned anything about yourself through the process of therapy?
Dustin Poirier: Maybe some of the childhood stuff I'm still carrying around. I don't think about it consciously, but deep down I'm still carrying things from my childhood. Everybody deals with different emotions and processes things differently. And I'm still going through it. I'm back in therapy now.
Steven Bartlett: One of the things I noticed from interviewing lots of psychologists and therapists was that young boys in particular who grow up without a stable father figure are much more likely to have anger issues, be depressed, struggle in life. And if you compound that with violence in the home from a young age, that exacerbates the situation. And having a parent dealing with addiction is another burden. Those three things stood out to me from your story as challenges that are understandable to stay with you as an adult.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, for sure. And then you don't even think about them throughout your whole life. And then you sit down with somebody and start opening things up and talking about things, and you see — well, maybe this could be linked to different things. I could be carrying stuff that isn't mine to carry. As I'm growing up and being more mature and talking with professionals, I'm starting to unpack some of that.
Steven Bartlett: Was that difficult to do — therapy?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, man. It's difficult to even say, isn't it? At the beginning when I first started doing interviews — with Ariel Helwani and stuff — and I would bring it up, like, "I'm going to therapy," it felt weak in the moment. Like, who am I? I'm going through therapy. I'm telling the world I'm going to therapy. But then I look at it in hindsight and I'm like, you know what, that's strength. Especially in a tough guy's sport. We're fighting and bleeding and beating each other up, fighting the best guys in the world. And I need to go to therapy to unpack some stuff. The human mind is incredible.
Steven Bartlett: It's funny because we go to the gym and work on our physical performance, but going to therapy — we've got to hide that.
Dustin Poirier: And the gym was a part of therapy for me. Fighting was a part of therapy for me. And I always was scared of that — what am I going to do to sabotage myself when I retire from fighting because I don't have this outlet anymore? I've done it for 20 years. I always had somewhere to go, always had to get better at the gym, to work on fighting, to focus on something. Every day I could get up and push myself to try to be better, to answer a new question, to do anything with fighting to get better on multiple levels — whether it's techniques or physical fitness. There was always something to work on. And when I retired, I was kind of worried about that. How will life look post-fighting? I was scared of it.
Steven Bartlett: Because you've been fighting since you were what — 16, 17?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: And you're 37 now. So it's just over two decades that fighting has been your north star and your orientation.
Dustin Poirier: It was always there for me. No matter what was going on, I could go to the gym and drown out any noise in my brain, quiet that voice in your head. And I was scared to not have that anymore. I still have it — I can still go to the gym every day if I want — but it's not the same. Not being on the mats preparing to fight someone for your life and your family's well-being in front of the world. If I'm just training to spin my wheels, it doesn't feel the same. I've done this my whole life training. Still fun. But it doesn't feel the same anymore.
Steven Bartlett: Because there's not a big goal at the end of it to focus your being.
Dustin Poirier: Exactly.
Retirement and Identity
Steven Bartlett: When you look through the last 20 years, do you see fighting as a really productive distraction in some respects?
Dustin Poirier: For me, yeah, 100%. It was an outlet. It was something to focus on, something to try to be the best at. It consumed me, man. Fighting was my entire life. And now post-fighting, separating myself from the fighter — I'm still trying to figure it out. A buddy of mine told me the other day, a wise man told him: "If you're lucky, you die twice. If a man's lucky, he gets to die twice." That's kind of what I'm going through right now. That makes sense to me. That part of me that every day woke up and pushed itself to be the best fighter it could be is dead. I'm retired Dustin now. I'm businessman Dustin. I was a father before when I was still fighting, but I have other hats to wear. I'm just trying to figure it all out.
Steven Bartlett: And it's only been — not even a year. July 30th, wasn't it? Last year that you retired here in New Orleans.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: Do they offer you any support with that retirement process? Like a road map for how to deal with the mental shift?
Dustin Poirier: No.
Steven Bartlett: There's no post-fighting program?
Dustin Poirier: No. There should be, for sure. There should be.
Steven Bartlett: Because it's quite a familiar story across sports, right?
Dustin Poirier: And that's what I always thought when I would see it happen — I'm never going to be that, I'm never going to be the guy that goes and gets arrested or gets hooked on drugs or blows all of his money. You see it over and over, not just in fighting but in professional sports. You've done something so long your whole life, so intensely, it takes all of you. When it's gone, it's like — what else can I do to the maximum? What dopamine hit can I get? What can I just pour myself into and go crazy on? And a lot of times it's bad things, dangerous things. You see it time and time again. And I always said I'll never be that guy. And I'm not — I ran into some trouble the other week, but I'm still making a lot of right decisions. It just sucks to be at this point where I always saw those guys getting arrested and doing stuff and I was like, "Man, what an idiot." But I wasn't going through it then. I didn't understand it.
Steven Bartlett: And alcohol has been a constant through your childhood, through your career.
Dustin Poirier: When I was younger, probably every weekend. But as I became an adult and focused on fighting, I went years without drinking. And then when I retired, it slowly became more and more because I didn't — when I was in training camp, I wasn't getting drunk and drinking like that. I had to wake up the next day and run miles and be at the gym and make weight. I was really focused. But when I retired, I didn't have to anymore. So it kind of started slipping back in.
Even when I was fighting — celebrations, gatherings — I would drink, but it wasn't a weekly or daily thing. But I've always had a bad relationship with alcohol. If I do drink, 90% of the time I'm going to drink to be the best at drinking. I'm going to drink more than everybody. That's the danger. That drive and that craziness — you can focus it on something and it'll benefit you, or it can hurt you. That's the way I've always been. So learning myself over the years, I know to be careful with alcohol. And especially when I'm feeling the way I felt that day, I know not to touch it. But I just told that voice to shut up and I drank and did what I wanted to do. I know better.
Steven Bartlett: I sat here with a lady called Dr. Anna Lembke. She's a dopamine expert. She explained to me that alcohol gives you a big hit of dopamine. She also said that genetically, person to person, we all have a different vice. Some people's vice is alcohol — they have one and then it's just a straight line up until they stop. Other people can have one or two or three and it kind of plateaus and they stop and they go home.
Dustin Poirier: And I envy them. My wife is like that. One of my good buddies is like that. They can have two drinks and be done. If I drink, we're drinking till the bottle's gone. No matter how many times in my life I've said it's going to be different this time, it's never worked out. So coming back home, talking to my wife, I'm going to cut alcohol completely out of my life. I made that decision. I'm not going to be like my father or make another mistake like I made in the airport. It's just not helping me in any way. It might be a quick release and a quick hit of dopamine, but it's not benefiting me. So I've got to cut it off.
Steven Bartlett: It's not an easy thing to do with socializing and things like that. It's tougher to be the sober one.
Dustin Poirier: In everyday life, it's not hard for me. I've never been an alcoholic. I just have a bad relationship if I do drink. So cutting it out completely is not a big deal.
The Airport Incident in Detail
Steven Bartlett: So take me to that day. You wake up, you go to the airport, you're flying to Atlanta. Where are you going?
Dustin Poirier: I was going to South Florida. It was actually a three-leg trip. I was supposed to go to South Florida for a day that afternoon, fly out, go to LA, shoot a commercial for three days, from LA to Vegas, work for CBS for the weekend, and then fly home. It was a big trip. We didn't even get the first leg.
Steven Bartlett: What happened? What's the sequence of events?
Dustin Poirier: On my flight from Lafayette, Louisiana, I drank two champagnes. Nothing crazy. Landed in Atlanta, had a little bit of a layover. Went to a bar, started drinking champagne. Some guys came in, took some shots. One thing led to another. Go to my gate, get into it with the desk agent. They call security, call the police.
Steven Bartlett: Do you remember what you said to the desk agent?
Dustin Poirier: No.
Steven Bartlett: So you didn't even get on the plane?
Dustin Poirier: No. I never got on the plane. It might have been that the desk agent saw I was intoxicated and said, "Now we can't let you on this plane," and that might have been what started it. I don't know. But I do want to apologize to those desk agents, whoever they are, and the police for having to put up with me. I actually asked a lawyer in Atlanta who I've been working with if he can get me that officer's information — his address, his cell phone — so I can write him a letter or call him just to tell him how great a job he did dealing with a person in that condition and how professional he was. It could have been so much worse. I just want to thank him.
Steven Bartlett: So there's some kind of argument with the desk agents that you can't recall, and then they say you're not getting on the flight, and that leads to them calling security or police. And the video we see is of the police officer coming in. You've watched the video, right?
Dustin Poirier: No. My wife watched it. A buddy of mine. I've kind of pieced it together at this point. I don't want to see it, man.
Steven Bartlett: You don't want to see it?
Dustin Poirier: I don't want to see it. Even when my wife started playing it and I heard it, she went and watched it in the other room. And then I have a buddy I work out with five days a week — between him and my wife, I've put the pieces together and pretty much know the extent of what happened.
Steven Bartlett: Why don't you want to watch it?
Dustin Poirier: To see myself in that condition, disrespecting police officers, disrespecting workers at the airport, disrespecting myself, disrespecting my family. I just don't feel like it's going to benefit me to see that. If anything, I think it's going to bring me down. I'm going to keep thinking about it. For the most part I understand what happened, I know what happened. I don't need to see it again.
Steven Bartlett: In that video, you seem to get aggressive quite quickly, and you offered this gentleman a fight. He kind of backs off — he knows who you are clearly, straight away. He backs off. What I find interesting also is he pulls out his taser. He says he might tase you. But as you walk away and you're arrested, you dap him up and you congratulate him on the job he did.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. My buddy was telling me that his wife thinks that's the best part of the video.
Steven Bartlett: It's the best part because it's funny because you're known as —
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. So I didn't watch the video at all. And every day passing I'm able to piece a little bit more together, and memories — flashes of what happened — are kind of playing in my head. But I got home, deleted all my social media. I posted that on Instagram, then uninstalled all social media off my phone. So since Father's Day, or the day after Father's Day, I haven't been on anything. I know they're making fun. I know they're talking about me. Obviously I've been in the light with being a professional athlete for a long time. I know how this goes. So I just uninstalled all my stuff. I haven't seen any of the clips, any of the videos, any of anything — besides what my wife and my buddy are telling me.
Steven Bartlett: Well, it was interesting because as you walked away, you were quite polite.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, that's what I told him. I was like, maybe I realized what was going on. Maybe I had an aha moment — like, what the hell am I doing — in that drunken stupor. I don't know.
Steven Bartlett: You said to him that he did a good job.
Dustin Poirier: And looking back at it now with what they're telling me and the way he handled it, he did a great job. I need to thank him because it could have been so much worse. What if it was a young hotheaded cop who wanted to be a superstar? It could have been horrible. I could be sitting here facing serious charges, putting my wife and my children through that.
Steven Bartlett: So you went to jail that day?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: You got charged with public intoxication?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, public intoxication. I spent the afternoon in jail until I sobered up. Then they released me on bond.
Steven Bartlett: And that's when you go and do the therapy session, go and try and find your father. All these trips are canceled at that point. You have to go home and speak to your wife.
Dustin Poirier: Right. It wasn't fun, for sure — to let her down. It's just been so long since I've been in trouble, been arrested. Decades. I don't even know when the last time I got arrested was. This is the first time in a very long time. But to go back and face my partner who's been with me through everything and has grown with me through everything — yeah. I just kept apologizing and told her it'll never happen again.
Steven Bartlett: If I'm a fly on the wall during that conversation when you get home, what do I observe?
Dustin Poirier: Me telling her it'll never happen again, and her telling me it can't happen again. Telling her that I'm going to focus on myself and be better from this. I know it sucks right now in the moment, but this decision, this arrest, this quitting drinking for the rest of my life — it's going to benefit me and my kids in the future. Things happen, you learn. That's just what it is.
Jolie and Family
Steven Bartlett: You met Jolie when you were 14 years old?
Dustin Poirier: Younger. 14 is like a freshman in high school. We were dating in middle school.
Steven Bartlett: And in many respects she's really sacrificed quite a lot for your career.
Dustin Poirier: A lot. She dropped out of college and moved to South Florida for me to chase my dreams.
Steven Bartlett: Because she was going to nursing school, wasn't she?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. And I honestly don't think I would have made it to the point I made it to in fighting if I didn't have an anchor like that at home. She's been my best friend for a long time.
To go home after getting arrested and speak to her — not only did I let myself down, but I have a family. I have kids. I let my family down, man. That's what hurts. But like I said, I'm going to learn from this and continue pushing forward and it will never happen again. It's going to affect the trajectory of my whole life. This one arrest. My son and my daughter are never going to grow up and see me intoxicated. They're never going to see me say things or do things I don't mean. It sucks, man. It's bad. But it's going to benefit me and my family in the long run.
Steven Bartlett: Did she know what had happened before you got back from jail? Had she seen videos?
Dustin Poirier: No. The police officer called her when I was in the holding cell. So she knew what was going on. She probably knew a couple of hours after, once they booked me and all that.
Public Reaction and Viral Context
Steven Bartlett: What's interesting is we've seen these kinds of incidents happen before, but I've never seen such a large amount of people understand. You would expect the reaction from the general public, from fighters, from people at large, to be "oh my god, this is a bad person." But because you've conducted yourself in a certain way throughout your career, that wasn't the sentiment.
Dustin Poirier: I'm not seeing what people are saying.
Steven Bartlett: It wasn't the sentiment. I can tell you that. It was crazy. I was saying it to my fiancée. The reason the sentiment has been "he's going through some things and this is a good man" is because, A, you've conducted yourself so well throughout your career — you've had good values in victory and in loss. But also I think because you've actually spoken about some of these struggles publicly.
Dustin Poirier: I've never bit my tongue. I've always been open about what I'm going through. When I was able to pinpoint and talk about what I was going through — when I didn't know, I couldn't speak on it. But as I got older and started doing therapy, I'm able to speak on it. Yeah, I am going through things on some days.
Steven Bartlett: Well, that's what I'd say to you — you've not looked at the internet, but the internet has been heavily supportive of you.
Dustin Poirier: I think a lot of that probably is longtime fight fans and people who've been following my career a long time. I grew up in fighting, so people got to watch me from a kid, grow up. They know my character for the most part. It was a bad day. It's not a bad life. I messed up. I had a really bad day where I was angry at the world, and obviously alcohol doesn't help that. I really messed up. But people have seen me year after year and I mean well, and I really mean it, and I think they know it's authentic. I am just a human being and I make mistakes. So I think those fans, if people are sticking up for me, it's because they know it's Dustin. Like, he's going to shake back, he's going to turn this into a positive somehow. And that's my goal. I don't want to let anybody else out there down. I'm trying my best. I have to take care of myself first. And I'm doing that — the right steps. The people who are standing up for me have watched me grow up.
Steven Bartlett: Dare I say, I think that was the majority of the sentiment — that this is a good man who's struggling. And it was people sending sympathy because of that, but also because there are a couple of clips that went viral online of you speaking on Theo Von's show and Joe Rogan's show. So in the wake of this clip going viral of you in the airport, these other clips went viral with them.
Dustin Poirier: Oh, you haven't — okay. I mean, obviously I did the interviews or whatever you're talking about, so I said it. So I'm sure if you showed it I would remember, but I haven't seen what people are talking about.
Steven Bartlett: Well, this clip went viral at the same time. This is what gave it context.
"There's no — if you get complacent, or if you — I'm honestly, bro, I'm a danger to myself when I have nothing. No goal circled on my calendar. I'm a danger to myself, man. I beat myself up mentally. I'm home. I drink. It's just not good. I have to have some kind of battle. And I've always been like that. But as I'm getting older, I'm kind of recognizing it more. So I kind of set goals."
Steven Bartlett: That clip went viral, and there was a clip just like it of you on Joe Rogan, where you're saying almost identically the same thing, which also went viral with it. So this gave everybody context. And you see that and you go, "Okay, we understand." And I think we're now old enough, mature enough to understand that once a pro athlete leaves a high-octane, high-adrenaline sport like the UFC, your brain has changed — not least because of the dopamine, but also because head injuries are quite prevalent in the sport. So there was a huge amount of sympathy. I just wanted you to know that because I know you've not seen it.
Dustin Poirier: I still feel horrible. And not even using fighting or head trauma or my homeless father or any of that stuff as an excuse. I just want to say that I did these things. I know better. I know right and wrong. I don't want to lean on these as a crutch for my actions.
Steven Bartlett: The other clip that went viral — just so you know — this is you and Joe Rogan talking about a similar thing.
"It's like a gift and a curse, man. It's like you have to be all in at something. Those kind of people who are built like that — whether it's fighting or drinking, whether it's good or bad, you're going all in. It's dangerous. The problem is what you see with Conor — when they don't have the fighting, then they go all in with the other things. Fighting was always for me what pulled everything together. That's why retiring is scary, man. Days are long. I have a lot of time. I don't have to get ready for a fight. You're still a young man. You still have a whole lot of life ahead of you. I'm 37, man. So it makes you think — what do I do now? What do I do with my future? Dude, I kind of got into like a funk — what the hell am I going to do with my life? Every day I would wake up for the last 20 years asking how can I be a better fighter, what's new in fitness, how can I push myself, I want to be the champion. And then boom, you lay the gloves down and you wake up and you're a civilian."
Steven Bartlett: And that's meant that your fellow peers like Jon Jones have come out and said some really nice things, and other fighters have come out and sent their support and well wishes.
Dustin Poirier: I appreciate it. I'm working on myself. I'm trying my best.
Steven Bartlett: Were you aware that Jon Jones had done a post?
Dustin Poirier: My buddy Kyle — the guy I work out with every day — told me that Jon Jones came out and said something and it was positive. He said Matt Brown as well, a former fighter, did a video and it was really nice. And I'm sure I'll see some of that stuff. I don't want to relive the moment that much. I don't want to keep diving back. But when I do get back on social media, I'm sure I'm going to see some of it. I appreciate everybody, but I'm not looking for sympathy or for this to be made okay. It's not okay.
Steven Bartlett: I know it's not. But I think the reason I'm really keen to tell you is that once upon a time we didn't really understand mental health, and people were thought to be crazy when they acted out of character. But I think the world has gotten to a place now where we think about context a bit more. People's first reaction wasn't just to villainize somebody — it was to understand. People went, "Oh, no. This is someone struggling with their mental health. It's not a bad person. It's a bad mental health situation." Which I've actually not really seen before.
Dustin Poirier: I don't want to blame anything or have a crutch to lean on about my actions, about what happened. I did it. I'm not blaming it on mental health or anything like that, even though I'm focusing on that now. I decided to drink that day when I wasn't feeling well. It's all on me.
Post-Retirement Mental Health Rollercoaster
Steven Bartlett: So is it kind of a bit of a rollercoaster in your world post-fighting in terms of your mental health? Ups and downs?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, big time. Some days I wake up and I feel like I made the right decision. I need to be home, I need to be doing things around the house, I need to be here every day with my kids making breakfast. And then some days I wake up and I'm like, "What the hell am I doing? I can beat all these guys still." I don't know if that ever leaves. I might be 60 years old having coffee one day saying the same thing. I don't know if that's just a competitive spirit, just fighting your whole life. But these top guys that are winning now on these upcoming cards — I can beat them still. I know I can. And then I wake up the next day and I'm like, "Ah, good thing I don't have to fight these guys anymore." Then the next day it's like, I can be the world champion. It's just up and down every day.
Steven Bartlett: And how does your mental health correlate to those ups and those thoughts?
Dustin Poirier: Even though I have those days where I want to fight and think I made the right decision, my mental health has been pretty even — up until recently. I haven't been worried about myself or having to go to my journal and sit in the morning and have coffee like I've been doing this last week. But when I do start feeling 100% normal and okay again, I need to continue to do those things. I can't stop because I feel good. It's a constant. Something's going on with my brain. I have to practice these things every day. And now being removed from the incident, removed from three years ago when I was in a dark place, I'm realizing that it's not a eureka moment where you're fixed. This is everyday work for the rest of your life, most likely.
Steven Bartlett: Was it just the last week, or was it in recent times?
Dustin Poirier: In recent times, Father's Day was the boiling point. But there's been days — yeah, there's been days where I've not expressed to my wife how I'm feeling and I was feeling down. The last couple of months. There's good days, bad days.
Steven Bartlett: Where you haven't expressed to your wife how you're feeling.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. Some days I will tell her, but some days I just continue to go along my day. I don't want to be that guy where my wife wakes up worried about how I'm feeling that day — is depressed Dustin waking up today, or is this my normal husband? I don't want to worry her. So if I'm feeling really bad, which hasn't been that often lately, I'll tell her. But if it's just slightly off, I won't even bring it up. I've got to be a dad and continue to do things every day. If I'm feeling really down to where I don't even want to leave the house at all, I'll let my wife know. But my daughter's about to be 10 years old. She can't comprehend what's going on. I can barely comprehend it. So to keep them on a steady day-to-day thing, if I'm just feeling a little bit off, I just suck it up and go about my business.
Steven Bartlett: But there will be days where you stay in bed all day?
Dustin Poirier: There has been. Yeah. And you try and sort of avoid the conversation with your daughter.
It's not often, but it happens.
Steven Bartlett: Do you find that if you don't talk about it, it kind of comes out in other ways?
Dustin Poirier: You bottle it up so long until it finds a way out.
Steven Bartlett: Which kind of brings us to the airport incident, I guess.
Dustin Poirier: Could be, to some degree. But even the airport incident — those days leading up to it, even if I did have an off day, I didn't feel like it was that bad, that serious, that dangerous to myself or anybody else. I really didn't feel like that.
Steven Bartlett: I've often contended with — when I'm having bad moments — do I tell my partner? As a man sometimes you want to be strong and steady. Especially with my fiancée, I feel like I have to keep it to myself. But then it always finds a way out and it hurts her, it hurts the relationship. So actually with age I've gone to — to avoid all problems, be honest as fast as you can.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. Honesty is always the best. For the most part I am really open and honest. But if I'm just kind of feeling off and it's slight, I won't even bring it up. I've got to be a dad and continue to do things every day. But if I'm feeling really down to where I don't even want to leave the house, I'll let my wife know.
Purpose After Fighting
Steven Bartlett: On this point of purpose — when you were talking to Theo and Joe, you were saying the purpose you had for 20 years has now gone. So in its place, you need to find something else. How are you thinking about that today?
Dustin Poirier: I retired at 36 years old. That's young. The days are long. I have all day every day. I need to stay busy, and that's what I have been doing — working with CBS, working with the podcast we have down in South Florida every Monday. I've just been trying to say yes to as much stuff as I can so I don't have time to sit back and think. And that could have been my demise as well. Maybe I was being too busy. Maybe I wasn't focusing on my mental health and myself as much. It's easy to get lost in these whirlwinds of being busy — be here, be there. Life just moves so fast sometimes.
Steven Bartlett: Do you have a plan for what you want to commit yourself to? You're 37 now. You've got another 50 years ahead of you to climb other mountains potentially.
Dustin Poirier: I don't have anything locked down — what I'm going to do, what I'm going to focus everything on. But I need to find something, man.
Steven Bartlett: Has there ever been anything that compared?
Dustin Poirier: No. Nothing ever will. I have a void inside of me that nothing will fill. Being a father is very fulfilling and I love it and it's rewarding and I actually enjoy it, but nothing fills that void of what fighting was in my life. I haven't found anything yet. I don't think there is.
Steven Bartlett: You don't think there is?
Dustin Poirier: I just don't know what's going to consume me and take all of myself the way fighting did. I woke up thinking about it. I went to sleep thinking about it. It was my life, man. I was in love with it.
Steven Bartlett: You can still play a role in the industry though.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. And that's what I thought was a good avenue. That was my goal after fighting — to stick around the sport, whether on the desk broadcast or with the podcast. Anything pertaining to the sport where I can talk about it, be around the sport that's given me everything I have and taught me so many lessons in life. I just want to be around it, speaking about it, be on the mats, helping younger fighters. And I was doing that when I retired. I'm still doing it. But it's not the same.
Steven Bartlett: How does it compare as a percentage? Is it 20% the way there, 50% the way there?
Dustin Poirier: Probably closer to 20. It's not even 50. No.
Steven Bartlett: Have you spoken to other fighters who have expressed the exact same sentiment — that fighting was the Mount Everest for them and they don't know what to do next?
Dustin Poirier: Not really to that exact point, but other fighters have reached out and said, "Hey, I'm all ears if you ever want to talk about it. I went through it as well. Laying the gloves down isn't as easy as you think." People I look up to have reached out to me, and I never took anybody up on it. I've never started speaking to other fighters about what they do to get past it, and I should. It's all my doing.
Steven Bartlett: Because it's not a new problem, is it?
Dustin Poirier: No. And it's not just a new problem with fighting. It's a problem with a lot of athletes who've done it for a long time and reached the pinnacle. When it's over, you have a lot of life left to live.
Steven Bartlett: I've heard similar sentiments expressed from some of my friends that were in the military and then left at 36, 37 years old. That was their Everest, and also the camaraderie they had being in camp, on base, being deployed. And then they come back and they're a civilian all of a sudden.
Dustin Poirier: It's difficult. But that's life. Life's difficult. You've just got to figure something else out, solve a new puzzle. Life keeps going.
Professional Consequences and Career Prospects
Steven Bartlett: You were going off to work when you were caught up in this airport incident. How are you thinking about work prospects considering all that's swirling around at the moment?
Dustin Poirier: Worried about losing everything I've been working on. That is a possibility. Post-fighting, all the stuff I've been doing, all the desk work, me focusing on getting better at all that stuff — I'm like, did I just ruin everything that I was working for? I don't know yet. It's still too early to really have those answers.
Steven Bartlett: Have you got sponsors and stuff like that, or is it just your partners where you do guest work and podcasts?
Dustin Poirier: No, I have a bunch of sponsors. And they've been understanding. It's kind of murky right now. I think it's still too fresh. I know one big one isn't a sponsor anymore.
Steven Bartlett: Oh, you lost a sponsor.
Dustin Poirier: Oh yeah. I'm sure I lost a few. I'm waiting to see when the smoke clears who's still with me or not. That day cost me not only embarrassment and embarrassment to my family — it cost me a lot of money. I'm losing sponsors. I'm losing gigs and losing things that I had set up.
Steven Bartlett: You're losing gigs you had set up in the future as well?
Dustin Poirier: We'll see. Obviously the gigs, the three things I was supposed to do that week are gone. And a big sponsor of mine is gone because of it.
Steven Bartlett: I know you said in an interview that you'd reached out to Paramount to say you want to sharpen your skills as a desk analyst. I just thought it was really cool that you proactively reached out to them and said, "Listen, I'm here."
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. If you guys think I would be a good fit anywhere on a broadcast or anything, I would love to talk about fighting and talk about this sport as it continues to grow with what I've learned through two decades of doing it. If I can be a voice in this area, please let me do it. And they did. And I told them — I'm coachable. I don't have any hard feelings. If I'm doing something wrong, please let me know. Because a lot of these other people who work the desk come from a media background. A lot of fighters work the desk, but a lot of other people might not take criticism and coaching as well as somebody who's been coached their whole life. So I'm letting them know — if there's something I'm doing that's not the right etiquette, if I can do something better, please let me know. Coach me. You're never going to rub me the wrong way. Please let me know. I want to be good at this.
Steven Bartlett: Well, it's cool because a lot of people come in with a lot of ego, especially if they've been at the peak of their powers in one profession. They don't want to humble themselves enough to be —
Dustin Poirier: It's a whole new thing for me. Talking on TV and talking about fights is a whole new thing. So I wanted to learn as much as I can.
Steven Bartlett: And you have a contract with them?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, I did. We'll see.
Steven Bartlett: Oh, you're worried that it might not be.
Dustin Poirier: It could be. Yeah. I had a year contract with Paramount CBS to work the desks for the fights. In a few weeks I'm back on the podcast. I know they're bringing me back to the Monday podcast — we talk about fights every Monday. In two weeks I'll be back on that. And we'll see if that continues.
Steven Bartlett: You know, the other thing is you are young. You're 37. I'm 33. If I had to wrap up in a couple of years and I couldn't do what I've done for the last 15 years of my life building businesses — gosh, that's what athletes go through. They climb the mountain and then aging happens and they get older like we all do, and then they have to say, "Right, brand new mountain." That doesn't happen to most people in most careers. You kind of just keep climbing.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. True. I never thought about it comparing it to other careers.
Steven Bartlett: Do you enjoy the desk work?
Dustin Poirier: I really do, man. That's why I'm scared to lose it too, because I really enjoy being connected to the sport. This sport has given me everything I have. Me and my family, everything we have is through fighting.
Financial Security and Life Planning
Steven Bartlett: This is a bit of a personal question, but it gives useful context. At 37 years old, thinking as a man who's got to provide for his family for the next 30, 40 years potentially — are you set up sufficiently? Because there's a lot of talk around fighters not getting paid that much in the UFC.
Dustin Poirier: The career I've had — I don't have to work another day of my life.
Steven Bartlett: Really? Oh, congratulations. Well done. Because a lot of people go out and they buy a little too many watches or gambling or whatever it might be.
Dustin Poirier: I need to stop gambling. That's what I need. I told my wife the other day — she was like, "I just paid some bills. I saw you made another deposit to the gambling thing." I was like, "I can't cold turkey everything. Give me one. Let's go one thing at a time. Gambling's a couple steps up on the list. I've got some other things I need to stop doing first."
Steven Bartlett: Well, if you can take care of yourself the rest of your life, then you know, all good — to have fun still.
Dustin Poirier: Right. Yeah. I've always planted seeds my whole life. I have a few businesses in Louisiana and elsewhere. I started investing when I was 23 years old, before I was even making real money. I was investing what little I had. I always planted these seeds because I knew I couldn't fight forever. It was going to end any day — I could get in a car accident and never fight again. So I've always planted seeds to try to have my future taken care of, always since a young age.
Actually, when I was like 18, 19, I told my wife I'm not going to fight past 35 years old. And I almost hit that mark. I was too young at the time to see the full picture and know how my career was going to play out. But at 36 I hung it up. I told her from a very young age — at 35, I can go to college, I can do whatever I want to be. I have a whole other life to live. So I always angled at 35 to pivot.
The Retirement Moment
Steven Bartlett: How does it feel looking at that photo?
Dustin Poirier: These are my brothers in this picture, man. My mother's back there. This is my family. All these guys are my family members. It was a special day. And I got to do it in Louisiana. It meant a lot to me. I was just a kid chasing dreams and it just flew by so quick. And I guess that's part of me that's scared for the future — I don't know. For 20 years I was dreaming about being the best. I just want to dream again. I don't know what that dream will be. I just need that in my life, whatever that is.
Steven Bartlett: So many emotions in your face as you look at that photo.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, I'm trying not to tear up, dude. Because it just makes me feel that way. I still love it. But I know I need to walk away from it, continue walking away from it. But I still love it. And like I told you, it's like a piece of me. Those gloves, me putting them on the mat is a piece of myself I left. I really truly believe that. I was a kid when I started the fight life. It taught me how to be a man. It taught me how to do business. It taught me a lot of things about myself. I didn't go to school — fighting was my education. I traveled the world and met people and sat at tables I would have never dreamed of sitting at. It was just an incredible journey.
But if I can go back in time to when I was a kid, 16, 17 — if I could do it again, I would do it again. Even knowing everything, what damage I could take, I would do it again. That's how fun the ride was. But nobody rides for free. Whether you're clocking in at a job, working in an office your whole life, or you're fighting men all over the world, we're exchanging something for something. So I would do it again. I'm just glad I got to do it here in Louisiana, where it all started. That was special to me.
The UFC doesn't come to Louisiana often. The time they came before my retirement was back in 2015, and I fought on that one as well. To get them to come back here just for my retirement was a big deal. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of bringing it back to the city.
I have a game room at my house and the UFC actually sent me a retirement piece — a big picture frame with my wife and my daughter, their names were on the canvas for this fight and I didn't even know. The UFC printed their names on the canvas of the octagon. So they cut them out and have them framed in a nice shadow box with pictures from the fight and their names and stuff. That was really nice, man.
Steven Bartlett: There's a lot in your head, isn't there? That photo seems to have teleported you back.
Dustin Poirier: I'm just thinking about that night, thinking about the guys in the picture, seeing my mom in the background, my friends. It was just an incredible night. And it hurts me a little bit to be sitting here talking about getting arrested last week. It feels like such a fall from grace, looking at this picture. I was on top of the world. In this moment, I felt like I did it all the right way. And I had the UFC place "In My Arms" — I did it my way when I was walking out of the octagon that night. And you know, just — it's life. That's life.
Steven Bartlett: That's life. It's part of the hero's journey — the ups, the downs, the redemptions, all of it. And everything you teach. When I think about your earliest context, it was, in my objective view, difficult. It was a real challenge. You've got a father that's an alcoholic, violence in the home, growing up in a working-class area. And you rose from there. And look what happened.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, it was beautiful. I'm proud of it.
Steven Bartlett: And then the roller coaster goes down too. And that's why they're so good when they go the opposite way. And so this is maybe just the platform of your next era.
Dustin Poirier: For sure. Whatever that is, I'm here for it. But man, I'm just learning and living and trying my best, just like everyone else.
Steven Bartlett: It's incredible though what you've proven that you can do. From where you came from.
Dustin Poirier: Honestly, no BS — I look you in the eyes and I feel like anything I set my mind to, I can accomplish. I can make it happen.
Steven Bartlett: You don't need to look me in the eyes and no-BS me. You've done something that very few men could ever accomplish, especially considering where you came from. So I think I'm quite excited to see what you set your mind to next, because if that's what you're able to accomplish by 35 years old, God only knows what you could do with the next two decades of your life if you aimed all that energy at an equally terrifying goal.
Dustin Poirier: I would love to. That's what I need. Something terrifying. Something I can't stop thinking about.
Steven Bartlett: And you've got the mentality that few have. To have accomplished this, you've got the core components to be wildly successful with whatever you put your mind to.
Dustin Poirier: Well, I'm not scared to work for it.
Steven Bartlett: At this moment in this photo, was your family encouraging you to hang up the gloves?
Dustin Poirier: My wife was. Nobody else in my family. No.
Steven Bartlett: How come?
Dustin Poirier: She was pregnant. She was a couple of months away from giving birth to my son. I had been doing it for a long time. We just kind of both knew it was about the time.
Brain Trauma and CTE
Steven Bartlett: You said you were scared because of the void of purpose that would be in your life thereafter, but I've also heard you say you're scared of the brain injuries that fighters often get in the wake of any sort of contact sport. I had the great privilege of interviewing arguably the world's leader on CTE. For people that don't know, CTE is a progressive brain disease caused by repeated head trauma, leading to abnormal protein build-up which leads to brain decline. Older adults with a history of traumatic brain injuries have a 230% greater risk of developing Alzheimer's than those without. 61% of UFC fighters stated they worry about potential long-term brain damage, with about 21% noticing differences in their brain function after their fighting career. And a 2023 study found that more than 40% of brains from contact sport players who died before the age of 30 had CTE. I heard you say that you were concerned about brain damage or brain trauma from fighting.
Dustin Poirier: Part of me laying the gloves down — and part of my wife wanting me to — was because she was kind of worried about my behavior a few years back. I went to a neurologist and did a scan with contrast where they put the dye in your veins and do all that stuff. I had some changes in my brain, but we don't have a passport of before, or throughout the process. We just have a snapshot of right now of my brain. The doctor, the neurologist, told me it has to be porous — you put a chemical on the brain, it releases a protein. So we won't know until I pass away and they study my brain if I have it or not. But the doctor was telling me, looking at the things you have going on, he can't say I have it, but —
Steven Bartlett: Your wife was noticing different behavior?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. Just emotional and stuff. It's not a conversation people have a lot about CTE. I only learned about it about a year ago when I interviewed this person and I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that athletes doing contact sports, kids doing American football — and not only fighting, I played football all my youth as well. So I'm sure my head's been rattled a good bit.
Steven Bartlett: I have a brain scan here — for the listeners at home to show them what advanced CTE looks like on the brain. It's these kinds of plaques that build up in the brain from contact head injuries. And what the symptoms of that are often mental health disorders, addictions also sort of associated with CTE. People sometimes see boxers slurring their words, and that's also within the same family and category of CTE.
Dustin Poirier: But as you say, it's not something you know when you're alive. They have to obviously look at your brain post-mortem and check if you have it.
Steven Bartlett: And what did the neurologist say was abnormal?
Dustin Poirier: I have scarring and stuff. I'd have to pull out my phone and find the exact terminology for the parts of the brain. I have a thinning in the back of my brain at whatever part. And I have a septum in your brain, like your nose. My septum is splitting — separated a good bit — and the neurologist thinks my left and right side aren't communicating as smoothly as they should because of the separation. And they suspect that's to do with head trauma.
Steven Bartlett: Do you feel different? Have you noticed any difference in yourself, other than the differences one would experience when they left a job that was that significant?
Dustin Poirier: No. Besides like ups and downs with mood and stuff like that — that's one of the things I kind of notice. And being honest, spontaneous decisions. I notice like if I'm like, "Forget it, I'll just put $5,000 on this bet right now" — I wouldn't normally do that. I feel like that is spontaneous decision-making that I wouldn't normally do. But maybe it's just who I am now. I don't know. Or saying "forget it, I'm going to get as drunk as I can right now in the airport" — I feel like that is spontaneous decision-making that I wouldn't normally do. But maybe I would. I don't know.
If we're talking about brain trauma and decisions I made or ways I feel, I'm sure I can draw links to all kinds of stuff. When you're scrambling for answers, it's easy to draw lines and say, "Well, this is because of that." I feel normal besides ups and down days and stuff like that. I feel normal.
Return to Fighting?
Steven Bartlett: So is there any possibility that you ever return to the UFC? If you had to plot it as a percentage?
Dustin Poirier: 5%.
Steven Bartlett: And since you've retired, has that percentage gone up or down progressively?
Dustin Poirier: Down, I think. Because I would have to reinstate myself in the drug testing protocol. I think I'd have to do like six months of clean drug testing before I'm eligible to compete again. So that would be another six months. It's just a lot of hoops to jump through.
His Father's Situation
Steven Bartlett: And your father?
Dustin Poirier: Difficult. Extremely difficult. Layers of emotion. A lot of people have people in their lives where they've watched them struggle with addiction. They've tried to help them. They can't make sense of why they won't accept the help, why they won't change. It's such a familiar story.
Steven Bartlett: What's the latest with him?
Dustin Poirier: Two days ago he was sleeping in his truck behind a business.
Steven Bartlett: And how did you find this out?
Dustin Poirier: My sister sent me this. Somebody she knows — he was parked at the park. Somebody snapped a picture of him getting out of his car. He's got his top off. No shoes. My sister actually gave him that truck that he's living in.
And we're still working to get him to do something, admit himself, just to help himself.
Steven Bartlett: I'm so sorry.
Dustin Poirier: I mean, that's life. But to see your father like that — it's just like, damn, man.
Steven Bartlett: Is it alcohol?
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, it's alcohol. He never smoked a cigarette in his life. Never smoked marijuana. Doesn't take pills. Just alcohol. Me and my sister are trying. His other kids don't want anything to do with him, but me and my sister are trying to get him right. My wife's super on board, trying everything. But if he doesn't want to help himself, we can only do so much. Like I said at the beginning, that's not my weight to carry. I'm trying my best. I'm a father now too. I've got to look out for me and mine. I can't babysit my father.
Steven Bartlett: It can often drag people down themselves if they try and save someone from themselves. I've got a sort of personal story in this regard where I had to sit with one of my close relatives and I could see that they were destroying themselves trying to save someone else. And they are the only person in this family that have made that decision to try and save this person, and they are paying the price. They are sick. They are upset all the time. They've got constant despair. Whereas all the other siblings in that family have thought, "Forget it." And it would appear that they're living more peaceful lives because they've said that. But because of this person's heart, they are unable to just cut it off and let this person go.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah.
Steven Bartlett: Is there part of you that's worried that someday you're going to get a call?
Dustin Poirier: I've been waiting for months. Every day I've been waiting. Me and my wife talk about this all the time. Every time I get a call about my dad from my sister or something, I'm just waiting for the news. He's not in good health and he's 74, 75 years old. No telling if he's eating. I don't know. Every call I'm like, this is the one.
Steven Bartlett: What did your mom think about this, about your father?
Dustin Poirier: As of most recently, she didn't even know he was homeless. I told her recently after all this stuff happened. She's just sorry that I have to deal with this. She got remarried and moved on.
What's Next
Steven Bartlett: So what's next?
Dustin Poirier: Vacation with my family. Right here in Florida. Go on vacation with my family, sit in the sun with my kids and family. Just have a good time. Stay off the internet. Continue to work on myself. Have good mornings. That's it.
Steven Bartlett: Well, I know you're not looking at the internet, but I just wanted to let you know that the internet's been really kind. There's a lot of really, really kind sentiment out there.
Dustin Poirier: You don't hear that too often. Good to hear.
Steven Bartlett: That's actually why I wanted to do this interview as well — in part I just wanted to tell you that. But also I hoped we could be a bit of a platform for people understanding the complicated nature of mental health and purpose and addiction and alcohol and all these things that through doing this show I've been able to piece together myself. I've probably interviewed 700 people now. One of the most crazy things I've learned from doing the show is — oh, we're all the same. We all struggle with the same things at the most fundamental level.
Dustin Poirier: Pretty sure. And we're all excited to see what it is you put your great talent and your mentality and your obsession to in the next season of your career.
Steven Bartlett: Whatever it is, it's going to be incredible.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah. I just got to find it and continue doing it and continue working on myself.
Steven Bartlett: And please be patient with yourself.
Dustin Poirier: Yeah, man. Patience is a virtue I wasn't blessed with. But I'm working on it. Every single day, man.
Closing Question and the Good Fight Foundation
Steven Bartlett: We have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question to the next, not knowing who they're leaving it for. And the question left for you is: "Dear next guest, what are you doing to improve the world?"
Dustin Poirier: I'm trying to leave it better than I found it. Leave it a better place than I came into, with everything I can. For the most part making the right decisions and showing that people do care, trying to be a good person who cares about people and stuff like that. That's what hurts me too, man — me doing that. I wasn't myself. I know it's easy for me to say and try to hide behind drunkenness or a mental breakdown. I feel like all those are excuses. People who know me know that's not how I roll. I just feel bad about it because my intentions are always 99.9% of the time good. And to hear about the video and everything I did — I just hurt myself, man. Really let myself down. Hard to look in the mirror at times. But I'm going to continue doing what I was doing before this happened. Leave the world a better place than I found it, man. And teach my kids to do the same.
Steven Bartlett: And in 2018, you did start the Good Fight Foundation. You and your wife, after clearing out your old fight gear and auctioning it off to support Lafayette families, started this foundation and you've actively been involved in the charity. I went on the website and saw you driving delivery trucks and packing school supplies in the kitchen. But also I saw the work that you had done in Uganda, providing kids with multiple new water wells. And you were at 30 years old awarded the first ever Forest Griffin Community Award — the award presented annually by the UFC to recognize an athlete's exceptional volunteering and charity work. And you didn't have to do that, especially at such a young age, at sort of 28 years old when this all began.
Dustin Poirier: I truly, honestly, 100% believe I'm doing it. I'm using the platform I built through hard work to benefit as many people as I can. Fighting was going to benefit me and my family every time I walked to the ring. So my mindset was — why couldn't I stack more on my back and go in with a cause and sell everything I wore that night and benefit a family or benefit a person or another organization? Let me stack up as much on my back as I can and keep this momentum going with the foundation.
But when we first started it, it wasn't that organized. We were packing up my house, moving from South Florida back to Louisiana. We had all this stuff and we saw a news article that a police officer got killed a couple of streets from where me and my wife went to school — Officer Middlebrook here in Lafayette, Louisiana. And we're like, well, we're packing up the house. What about all these gloves and fight shorts that I fought in on these big fights? Can we sell it? Maybe we can sell it and donate to his family. And that's what sparked the whole foundation starting.
We did it for maybe a year and a half, two years just out of my name before we made it an actual nonprofit. We were just eBaying fight-worn stuff and donating it to the food pantry, donating it to this fallen officer's family. And then it turned into — let's keep this going and see if other fighters would get behind this and give it a name so it's not "Dustin Poirier does this," it's the Good Fight Foundation, so more people maybe get behind it. And it just kind of organically happened. Something I'm very proud of.
In a couple of weeks, we have the backpack back-to-school drive. We do probably 1,300 backpacks filled with every school supply on the school supply list for Louisiana. It takes everybody to make these goals happen — not just the monetary side, but going into this warehouse and packing every single backpack. We stretch the dollar with this foundation. We don't have any paid staff — we try to keep everything as minimal as possible to keep everything affordable. So we buy bulk backpacks, break all the pallets down, buy bulk flash cards, everything that goes in the backpack for the school year, and have to pack every backpack ourselves.
It's something that I really enjoy doing and I'm happy I have a platform to do it and raise awareness. No kid should go to school without the proper school supplies they need. It's just small stuff like that. We're just trying to make a difference.
Steven Bartlett: Well, if anyone wants to donate, you can go to the Good Fight Foundation. They're doing incredible work. It's a wonderful cause and as you say, you run it in a very lean way so that you can optimize for doing more and more good.
Dustin, thank you so much. Thank you for being such a class act and thank you for agreeing to have me interview you today. It's a real honor. You're a legend in my eyes for so many reasons — not just because of the man that you are, but because you've climbed impossible mountains and also the way that you conduct yourself after fighting, which is really inspiring to me. The values, the integrity, the orientation towards family, towards doing good, and actually to being openly human.
Dustin Poirier: Definitely am that. You know, that's my first time living life, man.
Steven Bartlett: The good, the bad, and the human. And you're willing to be so honest and open about that. And I know this sounds like a crazy thing to say, but that airport incident is going to help a lot of people in a lot of ways that I don't think you'll ever get to see indirectly, because of what I think is going to come from it.
Dustin Poirier: Thank you, man. I hope you're right. And I'm an open book. I'll talk about it and talk about my struggles, and I hope it does help somebody.