Coach: Dustin Poirier deserves “million-dollar payday”

Coach Mike Brown believes Dustin Poirier, one of his most successful pupils at American Top Team, deserves a million-dollar payday his next time out.

Poirier fought last Saturday, in the main event of UFC on ESPN 12, defeating Dan Hooker by decision in a 2020 Fight of the Year contender.

With this win, Poirier re-established himself as one of the top contenders in the UFC lightweight division. From here, Brown feels his student deserves a huge fight, such as a rematch with interim champ Justin Gaethje, who he’s already beaten. Brown also believes Poirier deserves a massive pay boost, as his fights are always absolutely thrilling.

🔊No matter which opponent is next for Dustin Poirier, @mikebrownmma explains why he thinks “The Diamond” has earned a big payday for his next fight #TLTS 👊💰@lthomasnews pic.twitter.com/Uecc9e72RL

— MMA on SiriusXM (@MMAonSiriusXM) June 30, 2020

“If it were me, it’s a title shot [next for Poirier],” Brown said on The Luke Thomas Show (via MyMMANews.com). “In a perfect world if Gaethje wins [against Khabib Nurmagomedov], in a perfect world, that’s what would happen. That would be everything going best-case scenario, but whoever he fights, he deserves a raise and deserves a lot of money for what he’s doing. Every time it’s craziness. Every fight is wild. There’s never a boring minute. I think he deserves a million-dollar payday.”

Brown continued, adding that Poirier deserves a pay boost because he so often takes heavy damage in his fights.

“Yeah this is not good for you,” Brown said. “This is why this guy deserves a lot of money, this guy deserves to be paid. We all want to see him. As a fight fan, him and Gaethje are the two most exciting guys in the organization. They went head-to-head already and it was Fight Of The Year. I mean every fight for him is a Fight Of The Year candidate. It’s concerning because you don’t know which one will be the last one. These guys are doing a lot of damage to each other. It’s definitely not good for you.”

Dustin Poirier got paid $300,000 for his victory over Hooker, plus a $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus.

With his victory over Hooker, he returned to the win column after coming up short in a lightweight title fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov back in September 2019. While it’s possible he’ll find himself in a fight with the Gaethje vs. Nurmagomedov winner, he could also wind up fighting Tony Ferguson, Conor McGregor, or Charles Oliveira in the near future.

Do you think Poirier deserves bigger paydays going forward?