Dustin Poirier shares backstage drill that sealed deal against Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 299
Dustin Poirier was ardently practicing his fight-ending sequence versus Benoit Saint Denis backstage before their fight.
'The Diamond' secured a striking-based finish in the second stanza of their UFC 299 co-main event bout. It was a proverbial dogfight for as long as it lasted, and the Louisiana native got it done with the right hook.
Speaking to Laura Sanko backstage post-fight, when she asked if he knew that the right hand would find a home, Poirier said:
"In the locker room, I don't know if the UFC has the footage, but in the locker room we were practicing catch, right hand. Catch right hook, catch right hook. Sure enough his hand was down and his chin was there when the right hook landed. I think [the] right hook is one of my best punches."
Check out the post-fight interview between Dustin Poirier and Laura Sanko below:
UFC combatants drilling fight-ending sequences in the past
Dustin Poirier is not alone when it comes to footage of specifically drilling certain sequences that lead to defined endings in fights.
Alexa Grasso fits within this as training footage revealed she had long been training a counter that saw her capture UFC flyweight gold. The footage came out of Grasso's counter to Valentina Shevchenko's vaunted spinning back-kick that came to fruition in the fight.
A finish that saw Grasso secure a rear naked choke after the back take to claim the 125-pound strap. This occurred in round four of their UFC 285 bout.
There was another permutation of released footage aligning with a fight finish that happened at UFC 285. The headliner of that pay-per-view card saw Jon Jones submit Ciryl Gane, and 'Bones' had been training with Henry Cejudo ahead of the heavyweight title-winning effort.
'Triple C' released footage after the fight with Jones, drilling the exact finishing sequence that we all saw manifest into reality in March 2023.
Leon Edwards was also in a somewhat recent and famous version of this as well. It was revealed after his major come-from-behind win over Kamaru Usman to capture the welterweight title was ardently drilled beforehand.
'Rocky' became the kind of 170 pounds at UFC 278, and footage that came out after the win showed how much he had been drilling that head kick before it generated the massive win for him.