Jump to
It’s been a classic negotiating tactic of the UFC for years now. Get fans hyped up by announcing a booking, only for it to later turn out that the fight everyone was excited for was never actually booked. It was a tactic that truly became obvious to fans during Gilbert Melendez’s time with the UFC, specifically a planned Khabib Nurmagomedov fight that was announced by Dana White & co. while Melendez was still negotiating for a new contract with the promotion.
Melendez instead opted to go to Bellator, but was pulled back to the world’s largest MMA promotion via a ‘matching clause’. He then went on to face Anthony Pettis as opposing coaches on the Ultimate Fighter before vying against ‘Showtime’ for the lightweight title. The Nurmagomedov bout never materialized.
Dustin Poirier turns down Benoit Saint Denis fight
More so than contract negotiation tactics, the current version of the UFC has seen a consistent problem with stagnation at the upper ends of their divisional rankings. A voting panel that seems inconsistent on demoting fighters for inactivity or for a lack of relevant wins, and a realization from fighters that there’s more risk than reward in taking on lower-ranked opposition, has created a series of contender pools populated by the same few familiar faces seemingly for years on end. Nowhere has this problem been more present than the lightweight division.
Perhaps that’s why Dana White took a stab at announcing a bout between former interim lightweight title holder—and #3 ranked—Dustin Poirier against fast rising #11 ranked talent Benoit Saint Denis. A surefire banger that also seemed like an all risk/no reward booking for the ‘Diamond’. If fans might have been wondering why Poirier might take on such a dangerous opponent who had so little to offer him in terms of name recognition or title fight relevance, it turns out he hadn’t.
“I reached out to [Dustin Poirier] about his tweet that the BSD fight at 299 is off,” MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported. “His response: ‘There was no contractual agreement before the fight was announced and we couldn’t come to terms.”
Even Benoit Saint Deni’s coach recently admitted that neither he nor his fighter had any clue about the fight booking right up until the day the announcement was made public.
Or then again, maybe this was all just one big misunderstanding.
Dustin Poirier backtracks, says UFC 299 fight is still on
Chalk one up for Dana White. The UFC boss may have pushed the news that Dustin Poirier was fighting Benoit Saint Denis as a pressure tactic to get him to take a less desirable booking than he might otherwise have been looking for, but it sounds like it actually worked.
Shortly after denying that he had accepted the fight at all, Poirier came back to Twitter to announce that his team had, in fact, come to terms with the UFC in the last few days. UFC 299 is still a go.
Never one to miss a chance to gloat—and despite the fighters themselves involved saying that they only came to an agreement after the bout was announced—Dana White quickly took to social media to bash MMA Fighting’s Guilherme Cruz for picking up Poirier’s statement and fleshing out the reporting.
It has to be noted that nothing in the screenshots White shared suggested that either a contract had been signed or even that Saint Denis knew the Poirier would be his opponent. All these screenshots from White show are that Saint Denis had verbally agreed to a potential fight at UFC 299. Seems like a strange reason to put someone on blast considering even Poirier didn’t know his fight had been 100% agreed upon just within the past couple days.
End of the day, it’s good news for fans. Saint-Denis vs. Poirier promises to be an absolute war. UFC 299 is set to be headlined by Sean O’Malley vs. Marlon Vera for the bantamweight title. Alongside the main and co-main events, the card is expected to feature the debut of former Bellator star Michael Page, taking on Kevin Holland as well as Gilbert Burns vs. Jack Della Maddalena and Petr Yan vs. Song Yadong.
Bloody Elbow merch available
Bloody Elbow is pleased to announce our partnership with Revgear. They have been a pioneer in the MMA gear industry and have grown into a formidable brand and true leader in the market. Revgear now have Bloody Elbow t-shirts, hoodies and hats so you can show your support for independent MMA journalism.
Join the new Bloody Elbow
Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash and Connor Reubusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.
About the author
