Coach Reveals Dustin Poirier Ignored Corner Advice to Avoid Guillotines at UFC 299

Dustin Poirier doesn’t miss the opportunity to jump a guillotine, something coach Mike Brown knows all too well.

Poirier is infamous for attempting the guillotine choke, even though it lands him in a compromised bottom position more often than not. Most recently, “The Diamond” repeatedly jumped the guillotine without any success against Benoit St. Denis at UFC 299 in March, even though his corner advised him against it.

Brown, Poirier’s coach at American Top Team, recently revealed what transpired in their corner in between the rounds during that bout. According to Brown, Poirier blatantly ignored his corner’s advice to avoid the guillotine and went on to attempt another immediately afterward.

“They actually didn’t play it in between the rounds, after the first round I said, ‘No more guillotines,’ and then they switched to the other corner,” Poirier told MMAFighting.com. “But right after I said that, Dustin said, ‘No, but I can hit it! I can hit it!’ I just replied, ‘You crazy bastard.’

“I literally said that and then he went and jumped another one. They didn’t play that part, but there was more words said after I said don’t jump the guillotine.”

Brown further noted that while Poirier is yet to earn a guillotine submission win inside the Octagon, he has found success with it in sparring.

“He puts a lot of guys to sleep in the gym, to be honest,” Brown said. “He does have a very good one. He just hasn’t hit them in the fight.”

Although Poirier’s latest guillotine attempts against St. Denis are fresh memories, Brown revealed that “Diamond” had him more concerned with the technique in his slugfest with Dan Hooker at UFC on ESPN 12.

“The fight where I was losing my mind is the fight with Hooker. Because he had lost the first two rounds and then he was battling back and then he was jumping guillotine in those later rounds, and had he got stuck on bottom in any one of those rounds, he would have lost the third round and wouldn’t have won the decision,” Brown said.

“But somehow he wouldn’t hit the guillotine, but he would somehow scramble to get back to his feet and start dropping bombs on him and doing damage, and then somehow stealing the round anyway. He would somehow find a way to make it work. He made us sweat and bite our nails in that one, that’s for sure.”

The closest Poirier came to successfully landing the guillotine was in his lightweight title unification bout against Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 242 in 2019. However, “The Eagle” later revealed that giving Poirier the guillotine to tire him out was part of the game plan. The Louisiana native is now scheduled to challenge Nurmagomedov teammate Islam Makhachev at UFC 302 on June 1 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Brown still believes Poirer has a chance of winning the title with a guillotine.

“It absolutely could happen,” Brown said. “He’s done so much in the sport. I almost feel like he doesn’t have anything more to prove, but this is the one box he has to check. I feel like he’s a champion even though he hasn’t won a title, a true UFC title. He’s won the interim. I feel like he’s a champion in my eyes.”