For much of his early UFC career, Dustin Poirier competed in the UFC featherweight division. While he realized some definite success in this division, however, he always found he was hindered by a brutal weight cut down to the division’s 145-pound weight limit, and ultimately decided to move back up to the 155-pound lightweight as a result.

The move could not have paid off more for Dustin Poirier. Since returning to lightweight Poirier has gone an incredible 8-1 (1 NC), and he’s now arguably the top contender in the division.

Having experienced first-hand how moving up a weight class can impact performance, Poirier recommends his peers try the same.

“Yeah, I’d recommend that to pretty much everybody,” Dustin Poirier told Nick Dwyer of Everlast.com when asked about hulking welterweight contender Darren Till. “You’re just happier with training camp, you know? You can enjoy it more, you enjoy fight week more, it’s better for your body, your mind. It’s just better for everything. There’s a point when you do this long enough where you’re going to hate the process of starving yourself and being low on calories and nutrients all through camp and then having to sacrifice two or three months of hardcore dieting and then show up and still have 20 pounds to go, it just makes it not fun.

“You should enjoy your job, you should enjoy the process of preparing for fights and being at your best and I just think that’s the way the sport should be moving,” he added. “Diego Sanchez just did it this weekend and I hope things continue to go that way. I know I feel a lot better.”

For Dustin Poirier, the choice to move up a division has been tremendously fruitful. Which fighters do you think would benefit from following in his footsteps?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/14/2018.