Dustin Poirier will make his UFC return against 28-year-old Benoit Saint-Denis in a special 5-round co-main event at UFC 299 this weekend in Miami, Florida. The former interim lightweight champion will take on a 28-year-old fighter from France, Benoit Saint-Denis.
The French fighter has quickly made a name for himself owing to his five successive stoppage wins inside the UFC Octagon. His last win came against Matt Frevola, where he picked up a first-round head kick KO over the UFC veteran.
WE 👏 CAN’T 👏 WAIT 👏#UFC299 will be one for the 📚 pic.twitter.com/zf48E7QACj
— UFC (@ufc) March 2, 2024
Ahead of what was quite possibly the biggest fight of his MMA career, the former Special Forces combatant received vast words of praise from UFC commentator and podcaster Joe Rogan, who even referred to him as an “assassin” inside the Octagon.
Rogan also said Poirier got a “lot of money” from the UFC to accept the fight against a young up-and-coming prospect.
“Animal, animal! They gave him a lot of money. It’s a lot of money.” Rogan said while responding to Poirier’s decision to accept the fight against Saint-Denis.
Joe Rogan shares his thoughts on Benois Saint-Denis’ fighting style
Speaking of Saint-Denis‘ style of fighting, Rogan shared how the French fighter is good everywhere, and rightfully so. He has only gone the distance once in his MMA career, a fight that he lost on his UFC debut. He is 13-1 as a pro, with 13 stoppage wins. 9 out of these 13 wins have come via way of submission.
“That guy right there is a f***ing killer. He’s a straight-up killer. When he fought Bonfim: Bonfim makes his UFC debut, knocks out Terrance McKinney, looks like a world-beater. Looks like he’s gonna be the next guy, and then this guy mauls him, just mauls him.”
Rogan responded to Saint-Denis’s usual approach to fighting, “Everything. He is a great striker. He’s like a killer. He’s just an assassin. He knows how to kill people.”
Speaking about his jiu-jitsu, the UFC commentator added, “It’s good. It’s very good. Saint-Denis, he strangled him. That’s how he won that (fight against Ismael Bonfim) fight. He is good at everything.”
At the time of writing, there are no reports as to how much Dustin Poirier will earn to fight Benoit Saint-Denis. However, considering the massive paydays he has already collected with the back-to-back Conor McGregor fights and PPV headliners, its safe to say Dana White-led UFC must have rewarded Dustin Poirier handsomly for accepting the fight at UFC 299.