Dustin Poirier's day-after battle wounds (it might be easy to forget he was the winner)

The photos may suggest otherwise, but Dustin Poirier was actually the winner of Saturday’s UFC on FOX 29 headliner.

In a network-televised bout at Gila River Arena in Glendale, Ariz., Poirier (23-5 MMA, 15-4 UFC) went a little more than three rounds with a very game Justin Gaethje (18-2 MMA, 1-2 UFC) to eventually score a fourth-round TKO victory.

The lightweight thriller earned “Fight of the Night” honors (it was a pretty obvious choice, and don’t be surprised to see the matchup on many “Fight of the Year” lists as 2018 comes to a close). Fans, media members and fellow fighters were also quick to laud the barnburner, which lived up the grand expectations many had for the bout.

Poirier entered UFC on FOX 29 as the No. 9 fighter in the USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, and with his victory over No. 5. Gaethje, he’s likely to get a bump up when the rankings are updated on Tuesday. As we know, of course, Poirier (and UFC President Dana White) are now thinking about a potential title shot (via Twitter):

However, Poirier may need a little recovery time before he’s back in the gym and preparing for that potential title fight (or, at the very least, a title eliminator). Overnight, the 29-year-old fan favorite shared some pictures of his battle wounds from the fight, and they include a leg badly damaged by Gaethje’s low kicks, which hobbled Poirier as the fight wore on (via Twitter):

Poirier also had a message for his opponent (via Twitter):

Check out Poirier’s full post-fight interview above and some fight-night pictures below.

For more on UFC on FOX 29, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie’s blog space. We don’t take it overly seriously, and neither should you. If you come complaining to us that something you read here is not hard-hitting news, expect to have the previous sentence repeated in ALL CAPS.