A guide to Dustin Poirier's Hillbilly boxing

 Many great strikers have graced the lower weight classes of mixed martial arts, but few have a style quite as unique as Poirier. Blessed with a seemingly God given desire to scrap and cursed with a debilitating hip injury, Poirier has developed an incredibly unique style, easily recognisable even as a silhouette. His readiness to brawl has given him a sizable fanbase but it is his technical innovations that have carried him to the peak of the sport.

Poirier’s boxing is what he is notorious for. The Louisiana native has heat in his hands and he’s not afraid to throw down. While his hooks make up a large part of his game, his straight punches are the backbone of his striking. Poirier’s most underrated punch is probably his jab. He will use it on the front foot. He will use it on the back foot. He will use it at the start of a combination and he will use it at the end. Poirier’s limited hip mobility makes it difficult for him to enter the pocket, but the jab is the perfect way to begin exchanges, ferrying him into boxing range as he steps into single and double jabs. Even if Poirier doesn’t use it to enter, opponents who are less confident under fire can be coaxed into an exchange when they start to see the punches coming. When an opponent lashes out against the punches, Dustin can take advantage of his pull counter game, often slipping an opponent’s right hand into a left straight. The jab is not just a way for Poirier to initiate action but also a great way of ending it, often jabbing at the end of a striking exchange to get the “last hit”, regularly catching the opponent off guard as they back out of the pocket. 

Once Poirier gets his jab going he can get into position to start throwing hooks, leveraging his wide torso into powerful looping punches. Poirier likes to make car crashes as he enters the pocket, bounding in behind his jab to get into range and unloading salvos of hooks. Dustin will often cut angles with his combinations, doubling and even tripling up on punches while he cuts off the angle of escape for his opponent. The only options he gives are either to accept the damage or try to flee to an open angle, where they will likely be met with a stabbing kick to the mid section. Alternatively, Poirier can rotate his hips to follow his opponent, switching from an orthodox to a southpaw stance or vice versa. This means he can now throw the lead hook off of his other hand, giving him significantly more range to catch an opponent trying to exit the pocket.

This stance switching makes up a significant portion of Poirier's game. Poirier will often lunge in with a rear hand straight and fall into the opposite stance, catching himself on his back leg. This allows him to cover a lot of distance and open up a lot of offensive strategies, accessing the entire toolkit of the opposite stance only a step away. One of Poirier's signature combinations is to throw the lead left from southpaw, continue jabbing with the same arm while he switches into orthodox and then throw the overhand right. By jabbing off the same arm he just threw the straight, Poirier helps to hide the stance switch, leaving his victim unaware of the power punch that’s coming from the other side. Dustin isn’t afraid of putting himself off balance to open up more striking opportunities. Going to a completely square stance and leaving your feet parallel will anger many a striking coach, as it sacrifices all stability from the front, without a front or back leg to add structural support on that plane of movement. While this may seem like the last thing you want to do in a fist fight, Poirier does it to increase his options. When his feet are level he has the option to step back or forwards with either foot, halving the distance that his feet have to travel in order to change into the stance he desires. Offensively this means he can choose which stance to lead an attack in but it also is just as effective on the back foot. If an opponent approaches while Poirier is square he can step back or diagonally with either leg, opening up the option of the pull counter on either side. Poirier’s stance switching game can put him in risky situations, but ultimately adds a dimension of his game that has elevated him above other strikers in his division. 

Poirier's tendency to brawl, coupled with his somewhat risky stance-switching footwork, puts him at heavy risk of a KO. He is often wobbled in his fights but manages to pull himself together and rally for the win. This is normally attributed to a good chin and having that dawg in him. While this isn’t untrue, Poirier’s excellent defence deserves recognition. From range, Poirier likes the hand fight, disrupting the path of his opponent’s jab and forcing them to throw a more telegraphed punch from their rear hand. Once that line of defence is breached or Poirier gets seriously rocked, he will retreat to his unique high elbow guard. While Floyd Mayweather and many other fighters have used the “stonewall” guard, Dustin’s guard is unique as he inverts his elbow to cover his head as opposed to resting his arm over his ribs. While this opens up his body, it greatly increases the stonewall guard’s coverage of the head, stumping even seasoned combination punches such as Max Holloway. Not only does the high elbow provide very good coverage but it also can be extended to frame off the head of his opponent, allowing Poirier to make space to angle off or create distance. A raised elbow also stops shots coming over the top, meaning that Poirier can hand fight with less risk of being countered for reaching. Even the issue of body shots can be mitigated by using the lead arm to parry body kicks, something the high elbow guard puts a fighter in very good position to do as their arm dangles down. This high elbow guard is not without its drawbacks, with the unusual elbow positioning making it very difficult to use the lead hand to counterpunch. Poirier relies exclusively on his rear hand to punish reckless striking, unless he moves back to a more traditional high guard to throw his check right hook. While it is not without its drawbacks, Poirier’s modified “stonewall” is a powerful defensive guard that has allowed him to escape many a precarious position, protecting him long enough to recover from whatever situation he finds himself in.

Poirier is a perfect mix of excitement and innovation. Both casual and hardcore fans can appreciate him from an entertainment and a technical aspect. Through over a decade in the UFC Dustin may not have been able to touch undisputed UFC gold, but he has grown to become one of the best strikers the sport has ever seen. Poirier has cemented himself as one of MMA’s legends and I cannot recommend a better fighter to watch no matter your experience level in the sport.