Daniel Cormier showed Dustin Poirier support after his arrest.Poirier was arrested Sunday for public drunkenness by the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office in Georgia. Police footage of his arrest showed him provoking a police officer to a fight, and going at several airline workers. The former interim lightweight champion faces one count of public drunkenness.
Cormier recalls interviewing Poirier ahead of his retirement fight at UFC 318, when “The Diamond” admitted that the idea of calling it a career scares him, and that he doesn’t know what it’s going to feel like.
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“That showed how hard it is for fighters and athletes to retire,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I interviewed him in New Orleans and I asked him what’s next, and you could see that he was really struggling with the idea that he was going to retire. It bothered him because I believe that Dustin Poirier, if you recall, this is a kid that had a tough upbringing, and this great sport gave him world-wide fame. But now that that’s gone, who is he? Is he that kid again? I know he’s got a beautiful family, a beautiful wife and two children. It’s hard to not get lost when you walk away from something that’s been so important and that truly becomes your identity.
“I think that we should have some empathy. I think that people should be a little bit more careful to judge Dustin Poirier, and we need to understand because when you can help the next man, that shows strength. It’s easy to be part of a mob, it’s easy to pile onto someone. But I watch the reaction and it sucks. It sucks to watch them do that. It sucks to see the reaction. … Everybody loves Dustin. Dustin has done some great things, especially in our hometown and community. We can’t forget the great work because of a mistake that he made that’s very, very public. He’s not the only one. So many people struggle whenever that thing is gone.”
Poirier lost his final UFC fight to Max Holloway in his home state of Louisiana. The 37-year-old capped off his career on back-to-back losses to UFC champ Islam Makhachev and former champ Holloway.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Daniel Cormier implores people to show Dustin Poirier ’empathy’ after arrest
