UFC 299: Dustin Poirier knocks Benoit Saint-Denis flat with 2nd-round KO

Dustin Poirier is still an elite lightweight. As Benoit Saint-Denis' face can attest.

The lightweight star got back in the win column at UFC 299 on Saturday with a wild second-round KO, leaving the Frenchman flat on the mat with a hard right counter. The Miami crowd, not far from Poirier's home in South Florida, approved.

The first round saw Saint-Denis play the roll of aggressor, though many of his attacks resulted in him having to avoid a guillotine from Poirier. The judges unanimously called the round for Saint-Denis, but Poirier left no doubt in the second.

Poirier's desire for a guillotine reached almost self-parody when he wobbled Saint-Denis with an uppercut and immediately went for another choke rather than throw some shots — he said "I'll never stop doing it" after the fight — but he finally got home a few seconds later.

It was a huge moment for one of the UFC's most popular fighters. Poirier had last two of his last three fights to top lightweights Charles Oliveira and Justin Gaethje, and a date with a rising star in Saint-Denis wasn't exactly a favor. Instead, as Poirier later said, he was the one doing the favor:

"I took this fight because he finished his last five opponents. He wasn't a name that the world really knows, he's on his way up and he's dangerous. Every win in his professional career, he's finished, and he has a never-say-die attitude. When I saw that and watched some of his fights, I called one of my fiends. I said 'I gotta take this fight because I honor this sport that we do.'

"Eddie Alvarez gave me my shot in Dallas when he was a former champ and I was on my way up. You gotta pay it back, hold your position or lose it. That's the nature of the beast."

Saint-Denis entered UFC 299 on a five-fight win streak, all with finishes in the first two rounds. Poirier represented a chance for him to enter the top echelon of challengers in the division under Islam Makhachev, but it would up being the 35-year-old veteran's night.