Former UFC interim lightweight champion Dustin Poirier is asking for help. The 37-year-old fighter, who retired from MMA last year, admitted he is struggling with alcohol following his arrest for public intoxication at an Atlanta airport over Father’s Day weekend.
The arrest came after Poirier was removed from a Delta flight at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Bodycam footage released this week shows the fighter in a visibly agitated state, cursing at airport staff and threatening a responding police officer. “I’ll fight you right now,” Poirier can be heard saying as he squared up to the officer, who called for backup. Officers eventually arrested Poirier, who then calmed down and even gave the officer a fist bump, telling him he did a “great job”.
Following the video’s release, Poirier issued a raw and honest statement on his Instagram account. “I’m at the point where I need some help,” he wrote. “Walking away from fighting hasn’t been easy on me and alcohol isn’t the answer”. He revealed that alcoholism has already devastated his family, saying it “has ruined my father’s life and I will not allow it to ruin mine, my family deserves me at 100%”.
The fighter’s struggle with retirement has been building for months. Shortly after hanging up his gloves following a loss to Max Holloway at UFC 318 in July 2025, Poirier admitted to feeling lost without the sport that defined his adult life. “Fighting was a cloud in my mind that never went away for 20 years. Now I wake up and it’s gone. What do I do?” he had said on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He recently told Full Send MMA that “if I’m not working towards something or trying to better my family, I’m a danger to myself”.
Poirier now faces a misdemeanor public intoxication charge that could carry up to one year in jail. The former champion, who holds wins over Conor McGregor, Max Holloway, and Justin Gaethje, has acknowledged that this moment is a turning point. “I’m trying to do everything I can to get my mind right and take the right next steps,” he wrote. For one of the most beloved and charitable fighters in UFC history, the fight is no longer in the octagon, it’s for his own well-being.
