It's been a wild few hours for Dustin Poirier, Benoit Saint-Denis, Dana White and the MMA fans. We pieced together a timeline of events for everyone who may have missed what went down this afternoon.
9 am PT: It all started when Poirier tweeted a photo of himself training saying that his fight with Saint-Denis was off.
My fights off but still working 👊 pic.twitter.com/DRG61CJySA
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) February 1, 2024
Shortly after, Saint-Denis tweeted implying he was still very much planning on fighting at UFC 299.
Les gars, restez calme, restez concentré.
— Benoît « God of War » Saint Denis (@BenoitSt_Denis) February 1, 2024
Je compte les jours jusqu’à @ufc 299 🩸
10:15 am PT: Poirier doubled down on the fight being off in a statement to ESPN, saying, “There was no contractual agreement before the fight was announced, and we couldn’t come to terms."
Dustin Poirier (@DustinPoirier) expands on his recent "fights off" tweet (against Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299) to me via text ... "There was no contractual agreement before the fight was announced and we couldn't come to terms."
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) February 1, 2024
10:30 am PT: MMA Fighting journalist tweeted about the fight being off and commented on the fact that it was never official to begin with. He also shared a video of an interview he did with Saint-Denis' coach who claimed they were initially "surprised by the announcement" of the fight due to having no idea they were even in the running.
Vicente Luque vs. Sean Brady, and now Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint Denis. Two days in a row where fights announced by Dana White are now off because... well, they were never really a done deal.
— Guilherme Cruz (@guicruzzz) February 1, 2024
Shortly after, UFC president Dana White shared a screenshot of the fight discussions with Saint-Denis in order to prove the fight was not a surprise, he was in the loop. He also had some choice words for Cruz.
Dana responded to this with a screenshot of a text exchange with BSD, and dropped F-bombs on Guilherme and called media guys pieces of 💩.
— Matthew Wells (@MrMWells) February 1, 2024
….but the issue is Poirier said he never came to an agreement. 🫠 https://t.co/0aujgERRX3 pic.twitter.com/vNgo7K04jW
1:30 pm PT: The crisis seems to have been averted as Poirier explains the fight being off as a misunderstanding.
"Sorry folks, I jumped the gun, I couldn't get a hold of my manager for a few days. I just spoke with him and Hunter. Misunderstanding on my part. Fight is on! See you March 9th Miami!!!"
Sorry folks, I jumped the gun, I couldn't get a hold of my manager for a few days. I just spoke with him and Hunter. Misunderstanding on my part. Fight is on! See you March 9th Miami!!! pic.twitter.com/oPriv0dMQq
— The Diamond (@DustinPoirier) February 1, 2024
The news was confirmed with Tiki Ghosn, Poirier's manager.
MMA Twitter reacts to the whirlwind UFC 299 mix-up
Now that it seems the dust has settled, MMA Twitter is reacting to the past few hours the only way it knows best ... with memes.
Holy shit.
— MMA’s Dumbest Tweets (@MMADumbTweets) February 1, 2024
Dustin “The Art of the Deal” Poirier 💰
What a W
It’s been a harrowing 2 hours man https://t.co/DZqQvbnpdZ pic.twitter.com/bJ3NUnH95q
— Sandi “Banana Chin” Pants💎 (@sandipantsmma) February 1, 2024
Misunderstanding. It's been cleared up. pic.twitter.com/6a2aPgMSf6
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) February 1, 2024
Blaming the media for reporting what an athlete stated publicly, on the record, is just incredibly lazy and deceitful. That said - am very glad to see Poirier vs. BSD is intact. #UFC299
— Jay Anders❤️n 🇨🇦 (@CageSideJay) February 1, 2024
No. Dustin finally going public got him what he wanted. That’s the biz. Good on him.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 1, 2024
Doesn’t change the fact that up until an hour ago he didn’t agree - remember he broke this story, no one else - and when this was announced almost a month ago he hadn’t agreed. No one is… https://t.co/XU5mzZNDKb
Dustin Poirier breaking up with us and coming back the same day: pic.twitter.com/43cUizj1cJ
— MacMally 🍀 (@MacMallyMMA) February 1, 2024
Very happy for DP 💎 @DustinPoirier getting the bag 💰 he deserves!
— GILBERT BURNS DURINHO (@GilbertDurinho) February 1, 2024
UFC 299 takes place on Saturday, March 9 from Miami, FL and is headlined by a bantamweight title fight between Sean O'Malley and Marlon Vera.