UFC 299 turned out to be one hell of a night for all the fight fans. But for Benoit Saint Denis this was supposed to be his first big test. Benoit Saint Denis won the first round through his impressive grappling ability but got knocked out in the second round by Dustin Poirier.
This was the first time the Frenchmen was facing elite competition but wasn’t able to get the job done.
Benoit Saint Denis opened up on his loss in the UFC
Benoit Saint Denis sat down with Ariel Helwani to talk about his fight at UFC 299 and elaborated on why did he actually lose. In the interview, Denis said,
I had the worst fight week of my life. My coach always say that you can lose a fight during a fight week. So you know I have been fighting a very tough guy. I have a lot of respect for him.
The Frenchmen made it clear that he was not doing very well during the fight week leading up to his bout and was feeling under the weather. There were also reports of Benoit Saint Denis getting a staph infection before the fight. There was also a visible infected spot on his forehead in the media pictures. He claimed that he was on antibiotics throughout the fight camp which ultimately hindered his performance.
He did take Dustin Poirier down but was unable to finish him on the ground. Dustin usually performs at his absolute best in the later rounds and that was the case once more as he beat him in the second round by inflicting some massive damage through a series of punches.
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Benoit Saint Denis currently sits at the number eleven spot. It’ll be quite some time before Benoit becomes relevant again and gets a shot at the title. While Dustin is in talks to fight for the title it’ll be interesting to see who does Saint-Denis takes on in his next fight.
Some might believe that Benoit actually had an off day but there are many who think Benoit is just not skillful enough to become a lightweight elite in the UFC. The bout between Benoit and Dustin will definitely go down the history books.
