Benoit St Denis vs Dustin Poirier at UFC 299 3-9-24
These guys seem to be on different career trajectories. St Denis has really impressed since coming to the UFC. Poirier is still very good but on the tail end of his career and has lost every time he gets to the mountaintop fighting for a title. Does he still have that motivation to be the best or is he now just fighting for money?
St Denis is very hungry and motivated and I believe he has a lot more drive and heart than Poirier does at this point. He was a soldier in the French military and has actually fought in wars. Now UFC fighters in general are tough customers but not on the level of an ex military special forces soldier.
Long story short, I like St Denis here. I feel like he is not only more motivated but willing to die on his shield. I'm not certain Poirier would do the same, he will look for a way out if he gets in deep waters.
Forgot to post odds...When I initially posted, at BOL it was St Denis-140/Poirier+120 and it is now sitting at -170/+145 with St Denis up to -190 at some shops.
Anyone have an opinion on this fight or care to talk me out of it?
Might crop a little if line keeps moving in my direction.
I will watch some footage and will tell you later my opinion at first glance I thought there might be value on DP but St Denis looking sharp he's serious man powerful and absolute dog.
I do agree with you they are on different career trajectories, BSD improving rapidly and DP is slowing down still really good, great boxing but chin is very suspect at this point. BSD is a young, hungry, aggressive who don't mind getting into a war on the other side, we have a smaller older fighter who has taken a lot of damage in his careen and suffered a bad knockout in his last fight. Got a go with BSD don't love the odds worse than -200.
+185 just too stupid to pass on. Maybe tail end of career, but can you name a single fight Porier has had fighting just "for money"? Every one of his fights has been and will be a war, and is St Denis really battle tested? Has he been in any real wars of will? If Porier is tailing off, he's gonna probably tail off similar to Jim Miller (also on this card), where skills may fade a bit, but he will always be a live dog, not just fighting for money. Think about it, the money route certainly doesn't have Porier taking this fight. Fact that he took it without much upside tells us he's still fighting to be the best. These odds are almost disrespectful.
Bad call...Frenchie has a lot of potential but has some holes in his game to work on. His striking and striking defense need a lot of work. He was chasing Poirier around with no defense and threw caution to the wind and got caught. Congrats to Poirier backers.