A UFC legend retires to be there for my family in the long run.

Don't make a mistake: Dustin Poirier is still at the top of his game. Even at 36, he remains the most dangerous fighter of the UFC, who stand both and on the mat. He wins against Conor McGregor, Michael Chandler and Benoît Saint Denis in recent years.

Why is he planning to finally take off gloves on Saturday despite a place between lightweights and a headliner at UFC 318 against Max Holloway in New Orleans?

Everything depends on the family.

“I and my wife have been together for a long time since I fought before I fought, so she was with me on this whole trip,” Poirier told NBC News last week. “She asked me to fight for a long time, as well as my daughter.”

After 30 wins in 40 fights, a curriculum vitae that mostly consists of all-out wars that made him a fan favorite, Poirier followed her advice. The native Lafayette, Louisiana, will go out in front of his hometown and fight for the last time to end a legendary career.

Poirier said his long -term health was an essential factor.

“I want to be there for my family in the long term,” he said. “I would like to watch my daughter get married and always there for her, not only physically, but also mentally. I want to leave with my skills. This is not good for you. You are not good for you for 18 years.”

Poirier said he officially resigned himself to the decision after his last fight against Islam Makhachev in June 2024. In this fight, a defeat in the fifth round, he suffered his third defeat in a championship. Previously, he fell Charles Oliveira and Khabib Nurmagomedov on the line with the belt. The UFC usually only gives you so many recordings for a title.

He would probably have needed another winning streak to get back into the disputes, and at his age it didn't seem to be so soon that he started fighting at the age of 17.

On the Saturday, the UFC BMF belt of the UFC-EI title, which the “Baddest Motherf ——” is characterized by a nice consolation price for years of exciting fights. He was able to go to the octagon in front of his hometown, beat another fan favorite and walk around the waist with gold.

It would be the perfect end of one of the most famous careers of the UFC.

Poirier emphasized how important it was to get out of sport before the sport got it out. Too many fighters have come to the cage with declining skills and sportiness over the years and suffered life -changing damage.

He said he still feels good enough to compete at a high level, which is why it was a difficult decision to go now.

“I am not forced to be forced,” he said. “I decide to go away and that is very important to me.”

In contrast to most fighters, Poirier has given the prevention of neurological problems. He told NBC News before the Makhachev fight that he was debating his retirement, partly “to take care of my brain health”.

A year later it is still in the foreground.

“It's not something I thought about when I was a young child in early 20 or mid 20,” he said this week. “It is something that I got older in sport, I started realizing things and noticing things and doing my research and simply growing up and realizing that this is not good for you. I'm not saying, not [become a fighter]. I'm just saying, take care of you. “

Poirier has changed some of his habits to help in this area. He now consumes healthy fats, fish oils and turmeric, takes creatine, uses hyperbaric chambers and only has a limited intensive sparring before fighting.

His opponent on Saturday was also open on this topic. Before his UFC 308 title fight against Ilia Topuria in October 2024, Holloway spoke about the importance of brain health.

“You only get a brain. As soon as this thing worsens, it is not like something else where you can rebuild it,” he said. “Be smart, visit specialists, visit doctors, research your own brain health and take care of yourself. At the end of the day it is what it is. I don't want to be a vegetables when I get older.”

The UFC has taken steps to help athletes protect their brain.

According to the campaign, a five -stage protocol is used to determine whether a fighter can return to the action after a concussion. Every fighter also has an immediate exam by a commission doctor and a UFC doctor after his fight. You may need to be subjected to a CT brain scan, an MRI brain scan and/or a follow-up assessment of neurology.

The promotion also supported the current study on the brain health of the Cleveland Clinic of the Cleveland Clinic. Since 2011, more than 900 athletes have participated in tests that help to determine the long -term effects of repeated head trauma and factors that expose certain people to develop a higher risk of developing chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). The UFC has contributed more than 2 million US dollars to the matter.

“If you had a way to identify people who have threatened these long -term effects, then you can treat them early or advise people,” said Dr. Charles Bernick, the founder and main researcher of the study, to NBC News. “Athletes authorize when they are active in their own brain health so that they can make decisions. For me, this is the most exciting stuff.”

The professional athletes Brain Health Study remains an ongoing project, said Bernick. The aim is to work with current and retired fighters for at least five years.

“This gives us a real chance because some of the athletes who started as active athletes then retired during the duration of the study,” he said. “So we can get a perspective for what happens if a person no longer fights, stopped exposing what they are exposed to … and to understand why some people have continuous problems, even though they are no longer exposed and are no longer exposed to and [why] Other people seem to be resilient. “

While no study was completed that concentrated exclusively on MMA or boxing engines, there were former NFL players.

In February 2023, the Boston University's CTE center announced that 345 (91%) had come back with a CTE diagnosis after studying the brains of 376 former football players.

Like football players, fighters know the risks of physically demanding sport. Nobody understands it better than Poirier.

“Every fight, every fight camp takes something that I can never get back. Share of myself, I can never return,” he said. “Next weekend I will leave a bit out of myself. This is just something I have resigned. But the fight is just something I do. I am a father and a husband and a business owner and a brother and a son. I am a lot of other things. Fighting is just something I do.”