Dustin Poirier is still dealing with the fallout from his very public arrest at an airport in Atlanta back in June but he says the UFC was always in his corner offering support.
The former interim lightweight champion was handcuffed and taken into custody on a public drunkenness charge that is still pending after he was thrown off a flight and ended up getting into an ugly altercation with police officers trying to calm him down. Poirier has since apologized for his behavior and praised the police officers who dealt with him that day.
While Poirier just recently revealed that he’s 28 days sober following that incident, he also dispelled any rumors that his former employers at the UFC weren’t supporting him in the aftermath of his arrest.
“I mean literally one day after the arrest and all that happened, Hunter Campbell with the UFC reached out to me and asked me what he can do?” Poirier told Yahoo. “The UFC’s got my back.
“Anything they can do, anything I need help with, let them know and they’re all in. No, the UFC, the company immediately reached out to me and had my back.”
Poirier says that Campbell, who is the UFC’s chief business officer, gave him every assurance that the promotion would help him in any way he needed after the arrest.
While he never disclosed if he actually took the UFC up on that offer, Poirier promises that the support from the promotion was there immediately after his arrest and release on bail.
“I believe his exact words were something along the lines of ‘I can’t let somebody who fought for this company for over 15 years, try to handle all this on his own’ or something [like that],” Poirier stated. “We have your back. Let us know what you need from us.”
UFC CEO Dana White recently told MMA Fighting that the promotion has a wellness program similar to the one in WWE to help athletes who need support during or after their fighting careers are over but it’s just not something the company publicizes.
Judging by Poirier’s comments, the UFC definitely stepped up to offer him support as he dealt with the arrest for public drunkenness.
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