Dustin Poirier Calls Bud Light ‘Poison’ After Sponsor Dropped Him Over Airport Arrest
Dustin Poirier lost a big sponsor. He does not sound the least bit torn up about it.
The former UFC interim lightweight champion appeared on The Ariel Helwani Show this week and revealed that Bud Light terminated his sponsorship deal following his airport arrest in Atlanta last month. Poirier said the lost money runs into a few hundred thousand dollars.
Then he went scorched earth on the product itself.
“They terminated my contract immediately,” Poirier told Helwani. “It’s all good. I don’t need that f–king poison in my life. It sucks that my family loses out on the money I had left on the deal with them, which is a few hundred thousand dollars. But also, if I’m representing something, if I’m advertising something that I’m not going to be taking part in, promoting stuff. It is what it is.”
That is a rare kind of honesty from a professional athlete who just lost a sponsor. Most guys smile and say they wish the brand well. Poirier called their product poison on the biggest podcast in the sport.
The context matters here. Poirier was arrested last month at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport for public intoxication. Video of the arrest went viral. It showed the 37-year-old confronting airport employees and getting aggressive with a police officer. He was released on bail and has since talked publicly about trying to stay sober.
Losing Bud Light might actually help him with that goal. If your paycheck depends on you drinking a specific brand of beer, sobriety is a rough business plan.
Poirier retired in 2025 after losing to Max Holloway at UFC 318. He walked away as one of the most beloved fighters of his generation, a two-time BMF-level warrior who fought Conor McGregor twice, tangled with Khabib Nurmagomedov and Charles Oliveira, and put on some of the best lightweight fights of the past decade.
Retirement has been complicated for him. He has been open about the mental and physical toll of the sport. He runs a hot sauce brand called Poirier’s Louisiana Style. He does charity work in his home state. And he clearly has been trying to figure out what post-fighting life is supposed to look like.
The airport incident was a red flag. The people around him have to be watching. UFC president Dana White has always spoken glowingly about Poirier. Ariel Helwani, one of his closest media allies, has continued to give him a platform to talk openly about his struggles.
By calling out Bud Light in public, Poirier is at least being honest about what he thinks the problem is. Alcohol is not helping him. The sponsor was worth money, but if the money is coming from something he calls poison, he is willing to walk.
Whether he sticks with sobriety long term is the real question. The public airport incident makes the stakes clear. So does his own language on Helwani’s podcast.
Bud Light took a hit here too. Getting called out on a top MMA podcast is not the branded content the beer company is looking for.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
