The power of perseverance: Battle-tested veterans Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier top the card at UFC 269

By Case Keefer (contact)

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021 | 2 a.m.

Five years ago, Charles Oliveira and Dustin Poirier were both lightweight afterthoughts at risk of getting released by the UFC with another loss or two.

Oliveira spent the end of 2016 bulking up for a return to the 155-pound division after a failed stint at the 145-pound featherweight class, where he lost four of his final six fights by stoppage. Poirier hadn’t fallen quite as far, but he was coming off a knockout defeat to a sub-.500 fighter (Michael Johnson), his fourth career loss in the octagon.

Since then, however, it’s been almost nothing but positive momentum for both fighters, delivering them to the headlining role of the UFC’s annual blockbuster year-end pay-per-view card. Oliveira will attempt to defend his lightweight championship for the first time against Poirier in the main event of UFC 269, December 11 at T-Mobile Arena.

“I’ve worked hard to get here,” Oliveira, a native of Brazil, said through a translator in a news conference after beating Michael Chandler for the title earlier this year.

It was a massive understatement. Oliveira (31-8 MMA, 19-7-1 UFC) set the record as the most experienced fighter to win a UFC title by capturing the belt in his 28th career bout. Poirier (28-6 MMA, 20-5-1 UFC) wouldn’t quite claim the record were he to defeat Oliveira, but he would sit second all-time with a breakthrough in his 27th appearance.

The two men stand in defiance of the traditional combat sports trope of champions surging to prominence from a young age with an unbeatable aura if not a padded record. There will always be some examples of that career path, but in the modern age of the UFC, battle-tested veterans like Oliveira and Poirier, both 32 years old, rising to the top after years of experience are just as common.

“He’s a guy who’s picked himself up off the canvas time and time again, fought through adversity, two weight classes, been in the UFC a decade,” Poirier said of Oliveira in a news conference over the summer. “He’s not just a guy with the belt. He’s earned every ounce of gold he has around his waist, and I respect guys like that.

“I don’t know him personally but his work history, I can’t hate on anything he’s done. It’s incredible,” Poirier continued. “That’s tougher to do than, I think, go undefeated, because you never learn things about yourself [when you win]. You learn so much about yourself in those losses and climbing back up to the top and getting motivated again. That’s when you find out if you’re a real fighter.”

Poirier, who did win the interim lightweight title two years ago before losing to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a unification bout, knows from experience. Poirier’s growth has been most evident over the past year, during which he has beaten superstar Conor McGregor in the main event of 2021’s two highest-grossing fight cards.

McGregor had previously knocked out Poirier, in September 2014, after getting in his head with copious trash talk leading into the bout. Poirier was able to tune out all the chatter in a pair of stoppage wins against McGregor in January and July.

“It’s just been a long process of years of making mistakes from being too committed and caring too much about everything, things I couldn’t control,” Poirier said. “It’s just the evolution of myself.”

Part of Poirier’s path to becoming a better fighter included making the tough decision to leave his hometown gym in Lafayette, Louisiana, to train with some of the sport’s best at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, years ago. Oliveira, originally from São Paulo, made a similar move, joining up with the famed Chute Boxe Academy, formed in Curitiba, Brazil, in 2018.

Oliveira hasn’t lost since that camp switch, having won nine straight, but he’s generally less reflective on his journey than Poirier.

“I don’t think like that,” Oliveira said through a translator. “That was the past. This is now.”

They both still have plenty to prove at UFC 269. There’s another old combat-sports truism that Oliveira must get past—that a fighter isn’t truly the champion until defending the belt.

Poirier, meanwhile, wants to be known for more than being the McGregor slayer. Those two fights earlier this year made him incredibly wealthy—he earned a base purse of $1.8 million in the pair of bouts before the more-lucrative, undisclosed pay-per-view bonuses—but an undisputed championship is the ultimate aim for every fighter, regardless of how long it takes to get there.

“I busted my ass for so long to put myself in this position,” Poirier said.

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.