Poirier says Bud Light terminated his deal right away, costing him money while he vows to stay away from alcohol.
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| Photo: BJPenn.com |
Dustin Poirier says Bud Light ended its sponsorship deal with him right after his airport arrest, a business hit he now connects directly to his decision to stop drinking.
Poirier discussed the fallout during an interview on The Ariel Helwani Show. The former interim UFC lightweight champion said the arrest and the reaction around it cost him a major sponsor, but he also said promoting alcohol no longer fits the way he is trying to live.
When Helwani asked where things stood with Bud Light, Poirier gave a short answer.
“No, they terminated my contract immediately,” Poirier said.
Poirier did not frame the split as something he wanted to fight. He said the money mattered to his family, then pointed to the larger conflict of advertising a product he says he is done using.
“No, it’s all good, man. I don’t need that [ __ ] poison in my life,” Poirier said.
“I mean, it sucks that my family loses out on the money I had left on the deal with them, which is a few hundred thousand,” Poirier said. “But also, if I’m representing something that I’m not going to be, if I’m advertising something I’m not going to be taking part in and promoting stuff, you know, it is what it is.”
Poirier Says He Cannot Drink Responsibly
The Bud Light comments came inside a longer answer about the arrest, accountability, and alcohol. Poirier said the incident followed his own choices and that he is now a month sober.
“What happened that day, I just wasn’t in a good mental space,” Poirier said. “I knew I shouldn’t have and I didn’t care in the moment, you know, just a really bad day for me.”
“It’ll never happen again,” Poirier said. “I’m a month sober from alcohol and I’m never going to pick up alcohol again. I’m never going to drink again in my life. I made a vow, you know, and when I make promises to myself like that to my family like that, I don’t break them.”
That answer lines up with how Poirier described the sponsorship problem. He said he does not judge people who can drink without losing control, but he no longer puts himself in that group.
“Right. Right. And I don’t have a problem with people,” Poirier said. “There’s plenty of people out there who do drink responsibly. I’m not one. I’m not one. So, if you can drink responsibly, have fun. Drink a Bud Light. Drink a whatever the hell you want. Be responsible. Have a good time. I’m not that person.”
Poirier also explained that the issue was not daily drinking. He said the pattern became dangerous when he did drink, especially after retirement removed the structure that came with fight camps.
“Probably three out of four times if I do pick up alcohol, I overdrink,” Poirier said. “But I don’t drink every day. But when I do drink it, we’re drinking, you know, and that’s a problem. That’s a problem I’ve had throughout my life, but definitely since I laid the gloves down.”
“When I laid the gloves down, I realized I was drinking to process emotion,” Poirier said. “I wasn’t drinking to socialize. I wasn’t drinking to celebrate. I was drinking to fight the feelings in my head. I was trying to process emotion with drinking to get away, to run away from it, which is a coward’s move.”
Other Sponsors And UFC Stayed Supportive
Poirier said Bud Light was not the only company watching the fallout, but he added that his other sponsors have stayed with him because of long relationships. His comments follow earlier coverage of his airport arrest apology and the support he received after Jon Jones publicly backed him.
“So far everybody’s been pretty supportive,” Poirier said. “These other companies I work with, I’ve been working with for years, for years and years and years. And they know my character. They’ve been around me in person and it was just a really bad day, man.”
He also said the UFC reached out quickly. Poirier named Hunter Campbell as the person who contacted him and said Dana White had not personally called at the time of the interview.
“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, that the UFC’s got my back,” Poirier said. “Anything they can do, anything I need help with, let them know and they’re all in. So, no, the UFC, the company immediately reached out to me and had my back.”
“I believe his exact words were something on the line 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 we have your back,” Poirier said. “Let us know what you need from us.”
The legal case is still part of the picture. Poirier said he is dealing with a misdemeanor public intoxication charge, adding that his lawyer told him the matter could be resolved favorably if he does the right things. He said his wife booked him back into therapy immediately after he returned home.
“I mean, at worst, potential jail time,” Poirier said. “I don’t think it’s going to go that far. Maybe a fine. But the lawyer I’m talking to, the day I got back, my wife already booked me a therapy session for the day after I got back. The first day, my first full day home, I was back in therapy and trying to pull things together."
Poirier retired after his UFC 318 trilogy fight with Max Holloway, but his name has stayed active through post-career topics, including brain-scan concerns, his advice that Michael Chandler should consider retirement, and Conor McGregor’s reaction to the arrest discussion. The Bud Light split adds a direct business consequence to a personal reset Poirier says he has already started.
- Jake Blend
