UFC 208's Dustin Poirier still learning to let go of octagon emotion ahead of Jim Miller fight

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Dustin Poirier apparently is the type who needs to learn the same lesson multiple times in order to fully get past it.

For Poirier, an issue that’s hurt his career time and time again is allowing his personal feelings to get in the way of his performances. It happened most famously when he was knocked out by Conor McGregor at UFC 178. He hadn’t lost since then until he allowed emotion to intervene again in a first-round knockout loss to Michael Johnson at UFC Fight Night 94 in September.

Poirier (20-5 MMA, 12-4 UFC), who fights Jim Miller (28-8 MMA, 17-7 UFC) in a lightweight bout on Saturday at UFC 208, said he’s been working hard to separate the personal from the professional when he steps in the cage.

“I need to be more defensively responsible when I’m fighting, I need to respect everybody’s punching power, and not get so emotional,” Poirier told MMAjunkie at a media day for UFC 208 today. “It cost me – every fight that I’ve ever really wanted to hurt the guy and felt that anger, I’ve made huge mistakes. (I need to) just take a step back and use my skill. I’ve been doing this a long time.”

UFC 208 takes place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. Poirier vs. Miller opens the pay-per-view main card following prelims on FS1 and UFC Fight Pass.

Poirier will seemingly get a pass on pre-fight tension this time around, because Miller is considered one of the most humble and respectful fighters in the 155-pound division. “The Diamond” knows the issue will come up again in the future, though, especially now that he’s made the fact opponents can successfully get under his skin a piece of public knowledge.

“There’s going to be fights in the future where it’s going to happen again where me and a guy get heated and I have to make the right adjustments and just be in the moment,” Poirier said. “I need to be more aware and be more in the moment in that cage. Saturday night, it begins.”

Prior to the loss to Johnson, it had been nothing but success for Poirier dating back to the McGregor fight. He moved up to lightweight from the featherweight division following that loss and went on a four-fight tear that included three knockout finishes.

His momentum was brought to a screeching halt when “The Menace” unleashed a perfect combination to stop him at UFC Fight Night 94. After that, Poirier knew a break from competition was needed to regroup.

“I’m sure I could have pressed the issue and got booked quicker, but I wanted to rest,” Poirier said. “I didn’t spar, really, for a couple months. I just trained, worked on jiu-jitsu, had fun, enjoyed my daughter and got right back to it. When the time came, at first I wanted to rush it and get right back in there and get my hand raised. But I sat back and said, ‘Let’s just see this thing play out and get better, make adjustments.’ This fight came along and it made sense.”

If there’s any win that will help get a fighter get back on track, Miller is certainly a name to do it. The New Jersey native makes his 26th UFC appearance at UFC 208 and currently is tied with Gleison Tibau for the most wins in UFC lightweight history with 16.

Few are more established under the UFC banner than Miller, and while he’s not ranked as highly as Poirier would have liked, he has few complaints about the matchup.

“I was trying to get a top-10 guy,” Poirier said. “Jim Miller’s name came up and I said, ‘This is an exciting fight.’ This guy has been in eight ‘Fight of the Night’s.’ I’ve been watching him for a long time. He’s a respectful guy. I like guys like that. He’s just a hard worker and he’s been around a long time. For as many fights and ‘Fight of the Nights’ (he’s had), he’s far from shot. He’s still a very, very dangerous opponent and he’s always relevant.”

If Poirier can win at UFC 208 he would have eight victories in his past 10 UFC appearances overall. The loss to Johnson was a setback he wasn’t planning for, but regardless, he still thinks there’s a great hope of becoming a viable lightweight title contender.

“Saturday, I’ll be 5-1 in the lightweight division,” Poirier said. “I’m going to fight two or three times this year. Realistically (late) into the year, (or) beginning of next year, I’ll be trying to grab that belt.”

For more on UFC 208, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.